ORIGINAL: tsoc

The contention that if there are less big deer,the accomplishment in taking one will be all the greater is an interesting one.Or that thesephantom animals are out there but some of us are not skilled enough to find them.Both of these lines of thinking are absurd! Big bucks leave clues to their existence,big rubs,big tracks,sightings etc..Yes big bucks are hard to kill but they are not mystical,if they are there you or someone else will see them.The deer kill statistics in my part of Ulster County New York run about 2 bucks per square mile,roughly 80% to 85% of those bucks are 1.5 years old.The odds of killing a 3.5 year old buck are tremendously low,because they don't exist in any kind of reasonableby my standard numbers.
I don't want to stack 1.5 year old bucks like cord wood and every so often reminice about the 16 inch 8 pointer I shot in 1989.
At least one in every three years my buck tag remains unfilled in NY state,so who is less selfish,me the selective buck hunter or the hunter who every year kills multiple 1.5 year old bucks while letting doe tags go unfilled? Who has the Horn Porn and who doesn't?Last I knew male and female deer taste alike!
I don't ever expect that I will convert any one to a different way of thinking.I will say that it is more likely that hunters like myself create more opportunity for younger or inexperienced hunters by letting young bucks walk,we also increase the likelyhood that someone other than ourselves will kill an older buck by letting young bucks walk.So again who is more selfish?
Some of this crap is so obvious a blind man can see through it! For anyone who has a passion about an endeavor it is assumed that as time goes by and experience is gained that a person would want to continue to grow and evolve in the challenges that they hold themselves to.It is easy for a hunter with any kind of experience to consistently kill 1.5 year old bucks,they are the most naive,unaware segment of the deer herd.Where the heck is the challenge in that!
I know one thing for sure any experienced hunter who would pursue 1.5 year old bucks with intention will never hunt with me! If they want to hit from the ladies tee,they aren't going to do it with me!