ORIGINAL: Planter

My name is John and after 30 years of hunting I still find it tough to pass. I shottwo 8pt deer last year and although the contestdeer was only 100 and the better one was 110 I am sorta sorry about the whole scoring process and wish I had not scored either one. I ended up scoring my best bucks ever just for fun and was horrified that they were lowly 120 class deer. There was a 30 inch disparitybetween what they scored and what I thought they scored.

Hunting time is a premium with work and such and in a state with a 5% sucess rate I feel the presure to shoot sumpin. I have no problem shooting does and would never shoot a spike or fork at this time in my career but I like to kill deer. I really admire the guy who passes on deer not up to their standards and end the season by shooting nothing.

For those of you just starting out don't let the standards of others dictate what you shoot. As has been said many times, "Shoot what makes you happy".

I let a guy hunt my honey hole last year. This guy hadshot nothing in so long (many years) that when he zipped a young 4 point you would have though he had broken a record of some sort. He even had that rat mounted and it hangs above his fireplace.

As a sidenote, I know of at least two guys from last years contest who did not even enter their deer. They were not up to standards.