ORIGINAL: BowHunterFett
My honest opiion is any buck you shoot SHOULD be a mounter. If you shoot it mount it, if it isn't worth $400.00, don't shoot it. That is what alot of the hunters in my area practice. On the propery I hunt, if you shoot a buck and don't get it munted, you pay the land owner $400.00, or give him your gun or bow. It seams to have helped, even though I have only shot 1 buck, I have passed on alot of small bucks, and noticed larger deer that just didn't come close enough.
As for your deer, it is a grat buck. Get it mounted, you will kick yourself later if you do not.
We tend to practice sort of the same idea - any buck you shoot should be a shooter - unless it's close to the end of the season and we don't have much for meat. We share meat in our group ( myself, my dad, my bro, my dad's bud, his kid ) so sometimes we shoot a non-mounter late in the season to help fill the fridge. I can only think of 2 times that it's happened in the 10 years I've been hunting.