The meat hunter in me is served by numerous does. When it comes to bucks, it depends on the state. When I was in MI, I shot anything legal because anything over a spike stood a 5% chance of living past its first set of antlers so I might as well shoot. In IN, with a 1-buck rule, people are much more selective so I pass anything less than an 8-pointer. There are a couple 160-class deer on the property I hunt every year, while I have not seen one yet personally my family does each year, so I am happy to wait and give them a chance to show themselves.

A trophy is in the eye of the beholder. My buddy and I just took down an average muley two days ago in Montana, his first. He shot first and I shot it second to back him up as it would have been very easy for the deer to get un-findable if it ran at all. It was 550 yards (both of us shooting 300WMs). Most people would consider it an average muley, but he was still walking on clouds today about it and so proud of making that shot perfectly. Who am I to tell him it was an "average" deer and he shouldn't consider it a trophy?