bald9eagle

You are missing what I am saying. The fact that you want to hunt mature bucks is fine. It is the obsession with antlers that makes many people into poachers.

Here is a fine example. Coming home one day with my dad we see a really nice buck chasing a doe in a field near my house. now my dad isn't your typical poacher in the sense that you are saying. He wouldn't shoot a deer just to shoot a deer.

Now this particular deer made him start questioning if he had his .22 rifle in the tool box or not! Would he have shot it? I can't answer that honestly but I can bet you he would have hardly touched the brakes on a doe or bunch of little guys.

Does your being a mature hunter cause poaching? Of course not. Does the temptation of taking a huge racked deer make a poacher? Sure it does.

I have even heard that game wardens couldn't use racks too large on decoys because it was considered entrapment or something like that.

My point is that the desire of taking monster bucks (that is largely driven my mass media) can cause a lot of folks to see only horn.

I'm not knocking your desire to take only mature bucks nor am I saying that it makes you a poacher. I do want to you to think about it though and ask yourself what would you do if a monster buck was standing in your headlights with your rifle or bow in the seat next to you. I've had to answer that question once before and watch a big 3 1/2 year old 7 point cross the road slowly at 25 yards.