If you hunt a spot that you have a chance of seeing that deer at a later date it is well worth it. I hunt on private property and have been passing small bucks for about 7 or 8 years. We starting protecting anything smaller than 8 pointers, but after a couple years we started seeing a lot of 8s. So we keep raising the min, we really go by the persons own choice. This isnt a hunting operation just a few hundred acres of our familys land. I have been passing 120 class bucks with gun on a regular basis, and seeing lots of P&Ys in bow season. It really pays off but you have to give it a few years, they just keep getting bigger.[8D]