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Not everyone that shoots a small buck is going to have a chance to be picky.There are a lot of places that only allow you to shoot one deer and you need to draw special licenses to take a doe, most western states are this way. Then there are places like CA where you ain't gonna shoot a doe period! When I was stationed in CA, you shot the buck you saw because you might not see another. Right now I'm hunting VA, but this screwy state has designated doe days. So if I'm hunting on a day that isn't a doe day I can't shoot one. Should I let the buck walk if he isn't a monster because I can't legally kill a doe if I am hunting for the freezer? Last year in VA I shot a spike and a 7 pt. I never had a legal shot at a doe. Those 2 deer fed me and the wife for the year and I refuse to accept your premise that I should not have shot either one.

I come from a family of meat hunters. I really don't care how big a set of antlers are. All they are is a few inches of bone. I also believe the current trend of focusing only on big antlers does a serious disservice to hunting. Anti-hunters are always looking for ammo to use against us and hunting for big racks gives them something to use. It is hard to criticize a guy that hunts for meat, public surveys show this to be true. But "trophy hunting" is another story.

Feel free to disagree if you wish. But I'll take the deer that I have a shot at and not worry about the one I may never see.