I am in a little different ball game than most here, I fill the freezer with elk, ANY elk makes me happy. I have a family to feed andmy wife and Idont like buying store bought meat unless we have too, which has never been an issue. Elk meat is flat out the best eating wild game I have had and I've grown up on it for 38 years.. Sure I have killed some big bulls but I am just as happy to killa cow. I hold out in the early season for a nice bull but once Oct hits, I kill what elk the good lord puts in front of me. Having elk here really allows me to focus on hunting older bucks and not needing to fill the freezer with several whitetails.

As for bucks, here in my home state were I can do all the scouting, patterning etc year around. I expect to kill a big mature buck every year, if I dont, its soley my fault.... period.When I travel out of state, I dont have as high asexpectations on caliber of bucksbecause Ihave not invested the time into scouting them like I can at home.I enjoy the new surroundings and just want tohunt "deer" more out of state than I do at home. I wouldnt kill a baby of course1.5's and 2.5'sbut I am fine with any buck that walks by that makes me happy or I'd shoot a doe on the last day, I'd be tickled. Here at home though I stick pretty tight to my goals and will eat tag soup if I have too, but that rarely happens (once in 26 whitetail seasons) if I do my homework everything usually takes care of itself.