Ok, My two cents.

The original post asks why some people shoot smaller bucks when they could wait and shoot bigger ones. The implied question is aimed at guys that hunt in his area of Iowa. He also asks why those who shoot smaller bucks complain they don't see bigger ones. Two different questions.

The answer to the first question is: Because they want to. Many people on this thread make the mistake of viewing everyone's hunting experience through their personal experience of reality (not that truth is relative but experience is). Someone who holds antlers as the ultimate goal often can'tconceive of the motive of a meat hunter. You are making the assuption that everyone's motive is the same as yours. I've seen all types of hunters, meat hunters, trophy (whatever that means) hunters, opportunists, casual, and zealot. If you've never experienced any other type of hunter than what you are familiar with than it's hard to imagine the other types. None are wrong. None are innately better than the other. Most are just motivated by different desires and likes. Some are that way because of circumstances and opportunity.

The second question, why guys who want to shoot big racks end up shooting little ones,has many answers: For some it's patience, some it's lack of confidence that a big buck will come by, some can't field judge a deer's rack, some are impulsive, the list goes on and is varied as their are personalities. Sometimes these people can be guided and may be taught or teach themselves what is needed to take that bigger deer, and sometimes it's just that these people are deluding themselves. Sure they'd LIKE to shoot a big deer, but when it comes down to it it's really not important enough to make the effort necessary to shoot that type of deer (whatever that effort may include). I'd love to have a million dollars. It's possible for me to make that kind of money. But in reality I acknowledge that I REALLY don't want it bad enough to make the kind of life decisions necessary to reach that goal. I'm happy with my lifestyle and apparently wouldn't trade it for a million dollars, literally. The difference is I don't complain about it. It may just be as simple as these people have the personality that likes to complain. Glass half full and all that. I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about it.

As for the subsequent arguement: I hate to say it but I'm having to agree with atlasman on this one. Atlas may be coming across as abrasive but GregH is coming across as arrogant. Let's look at the facts. Where atlas hunts there is extreme heavy pressure and a low survival rate of young, first year and 1.5 year old deer. Are there older deer in his area? Most likely. Do they move through his area of hunting? Possibly. Are they in large enough numbers to justify hunting them exclusively. Not likely, except for the most extreme masochistic hunters.

GregH what you seem to ignore is that you ARE comparing apples to oranges. You have sighted 11 mature bucks this year, obviously you havea good spot that has a lot of mature deer. I don't think that would be the norm for most eastern areas. You said you worked hard to find that area and I applaud your effort but you assume that this kind of area is around for EVERYONE to be able to find if they also put forth the effort. Statistically I think that's an impossibility. There's too many hunters and a limited amount of land for every hunter to find that type of honey hole. You also stated that you spent 30 days hunting this year and have two weeks of vaction time left for family. Excuse me, but that's FAR from the norm. I don't know what kind of sacrifices you had to make to get that type of free time, I don't begrudge you that, but I do begrudge the implied attitude that if we all would make the effort we all could have that as well. Sorry, but that level of sacrifice, for me,would include my family and home. I don't care how much I love hunting, I don't love it that much. So it seems that this arguement devolves to people not having the opportunity others do.

Having said that, I don't agree QDM makes things easier, per se, but it does create more opportunities to kill a bigger deer. ( I guess that could qualify as easier) You still have to find the right area to hunt and the right setup and make the shot (heaven knows I've blown my share of shots). There are no givens in deer hunting. You also need to let the small ones walk, not so they get bigger, but because the bigger deer usually trail behind other deer and let those deer alert them to danger. In VA I've hunted where you won't see a deer for weeks at a time and I've hunted where I can see 50,60, even 100 deer in ONE day! I'm not a better hunter when I hunt the area where I see more deer, and more mature deer. I'm just reaping the benifits of higher odds. Unless we are talking hunting specific, individual bucks then the skill level will not change the number of sightings, but the deer population will.

I also hunt with a recurve, not because I like a harder challenge (I never got much pleasure out of making things harder for me) but because I love the simplicity of it. I used to hunt a bare compound, instinctive for the same reason. We need to accept that different things make different people tick and move on.