To me its not an excuse, its a goal. This past year was my third year hunting. My first two year I got a 6ptr(1st yr)and a 100 class 8pt(2nd yr)on my wall. Having accomplished these two achievements this early in my hunting career has allowed me more time to pursue larger and more mature whitetails. This past year I set a goal of taking nothing smaller then a nice 8(in this area thats a 80-100class deer) or a large 6 pt in a similar class. I had my chance to fullfil this goal the first saturday of November of this year when I had a nice 6pt come under my stand, but my instincts told me to hold off, he seemed like a younger deer w/ a lot of potential. So I went this year w/o filling my tag, but I managed to enjoy the sight of that nice buck 2 more times during the season. I put myself where the bucks were, but didn't fulfill my goal. This year I will have the same goal as last year, except I plan on taking a doe first.