I think the whole idea that its all about antlers is quite overblown.
When I run into a hunting buddy they ask me if I'm seeing any good bucks. They don't ask me "been seeing any doe?" but we all kill and eat more doe than bucks
I killed a doe 2 days ago with my muzzle loader and she is hanging in the yard right now. She and another doe will make up a lot of my families meat intake for the year and we love the whole process. I had a lot of fun this weekend hunting and and got a few text from close friends asking if I did any good and I responded "yeah I shot a big doe" and they said "nice" and the conversation was over.
What else is there to talk about? Bucks come with interesting stories and history and pursuit and an average doe just don't.
I really enjoyed my muzzleloader hunt and was after a fat doe for my families table. Its part of my lifestyle and something I will pass down and hope my daughter passes down but at the end of the day its a doe.....I don't even know if Ive seen her before, I would have shot any one of 20 doe just like her, she walked right out of the timber to feed in the open in the broad daylight and I shot her. I don't mean that one deer is really more special than the other but when I shoot an average doe there really isn't much of a story to tell.
I'm what a lot of people would label a "trophy hunter" because I love the challenge of pursuing an old mature buck and often a specific animal and when I get one I tell you all the story and show you pictures because its interesting but the truth is I shoot 2-5 doe for every 1 buck. Its a big part of my families culture. We do it all, we wouldn't have it any other way, and we enjoy it very much in house but how much do any of you really care about the story of me shooting an average doe 2 days ago? There is really just not much story to tell.
We fish alot also and again its a big part of our culture and we very much enjoy going out on the lake and catching a good mess of average crappie for dinner but the handful of 15 inchers are the ones I'll tell stories about because nobody wants to here a story about my 9 inch crappie I caught and ate