Jeff - Sometimes its better to eat tag soup then to shoot a buck that is below your personal goals.... Trust me. I keep going back and fourth on the buck I shot friday, it happend too quick he was at 30 yrds before I saw him and I had one shot window. And had about 1 second to decide as he was on a steady walk... I'm happy w/ the shot, and will surely enjoy the meat. But Ive set high standards for myself (you know this), and I feel this buck was just at my min. Taking into account the deer I shot last week, I probably should have passed on this buck, granted its two differnt states, so its not like I've taken two bucks at my min, off the same property...

Dont get me wrong however, I'm very happy w/ the deer, and have a great idea for my mount, BUT, what really gets to me is that I think I just cant locate the big ones, I've already used this to raise my standards really high for the remainder of the season, I can take another buck thankfully, but this experience has given me the motivation to spend a ton of time scouting this winter to locate the big ones for next year. My strategies are going to improve, because right now I dont think they are good enough for me to take a monster, only by luck...

I also need to learn to be a better judge of deer on the hoof, I still get pretty excited when see bone older than 1.5 yr. The best that has come out of this is confidence, I have made two great shots in just over a week, I am more confident w/ a bow than I have ever been, so now I'm ready for the 150 incher!