Great post VC. I can't agree more. I honestly think it is a shame that the state has to make these practices law because people don't have the patience to practice them on their own. I don't mean that to bash anyone but that's how I see it.

The mentality of "shoot the first legal deer that walks out" is why the deer herds are in such terrible conditions in many places. It will take awhile but hopefully in 10 yrs it will have caught on and people will do it on their own without the state mandating it. It's just like catch and release and size resctrictions on fish. Anglers used to have the mentality of keeping every single fish they caught, and they were devestating the fish numbers and the young fish could never grow to become mature. Same thing with deer. The effects on a deer herd can be terrible when there are so few mature bucks.

Oh and yes I'm willing to practice what I preach. I haven't killed a buck sind '98. I've passed up buck after buck because I'm waiting on a big mature whitetail. If I want meat, I'll kill a doe, we have to many anyway. Just my 2 cents.

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Hunting the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas.