I am glad you didnl;t take anything I said as offensive, as I never meant it that way
and I fully get your view, its about what mine was, I always wanted to try and get bigger and at some point smaller one's just didn;t seem worth shooting(no offence to anyone that wanted them)
I just found finding ANY buck pretty easy and the challenge for me started to be more about finding certain class of bucks, over just hunting for any buck
which is also why I started into food plots a LONG time ago(back in late 80's)
I found you can GROW bucks, if your willing to make the effort and have the land to do so on, and THEN the harder part is keeping others away from them, that is IMO the hardest part, all the more so when MOST hunters want to kill ANY legal buck, and hunting pressure is HIGH in your area!
but it can still be done, my hunting camp for 30+ yrs NO one ever killed a buck over MAYBE 70 inches, then we started managing it for larger, surrounded by public land and HIGH hunting pressure
we slowly started getting 120-140's and even one 170+
things that helped us was working with locals that owned lend near us, club members that were enforced to abide with fines if not, and well, got rid of some that wouldn't, and then to be honest I think one of the bigger helps for us there was when hunting lic sales started to drop LOL
went from a 1 million or so lic sales to almost Half of that now , and of them remaining, many are like you and me, they want larger bucks too!
But again, having land to control is your best bet, it might take time to get them l;larger, but it is possible, and the MORE acres you have the better the odds are of them making it yr to yr!
small acres is never easy to see any buck last long, unless you have something they cannot get else where and are willing to STAY on your land Most of the yr!
this is where again BUILDING G a place is so nice an option, it is also extremely rewarding top, see your work produce things
in the mean time waiting for bigger bucks on many properties I helped manage over the decades, many owners would take ONE or 2 hunts else where to scratch there itch for that big buck, while growing them at home, then at some point them trips stopped, as they really got into developing THERE lands into better places,
making a piece of land into what you want is very addicting and I know of NO one that that regretted buying land
so again, my vote is to BUY land, why spend all that $$ over the yrs and have NOTHING to show
Big bucks can be killed on public lands, and are every YR
I hunted a lots of states(maybe about 20 for deer) and killed many on public lands, and every state I hunted often(yr to yr or for years) I ended up making fiends with locals and getting access to better private lands, NOT so much in better bucks, but in more control over WHO would be there when I was, as that was my biggest issue with public land, you get set up some place nice, and an hour after day light or prime time, some idiot comes walking in your set up and sort of ruins your day,
and nothing you can do but suck it up, as thats PUBLIC lands, and anyone can hunt them
but even so, I still hunt public lands today at times, some are VERY good, and if you learn hunters patterns on them you can dodge them pretty well! and do well yr after yr, all comes down to again, how much work your willing to do and your goals!
we all like easy hunts, show up, climb a stand and wait, most of the work all done already!
if that is all one wants, then, paying tends to be the game they play
which is fine for many guys these days
its why hunting has so many shapes and ways to do it!
another way to look at things some times is, hunting on Public lands, you can view it as an added challenge to your skills, to do better there than most do!
or branch out to new area's and see how well you are in a new place, change of scenery is nice some times too, as its not always about a KILL, many times its about enjoying the day afield too, or is for me!
Killed a LOT of deer over my life time, so, now I enjoy other p[arts of the hunts more at times, still like BIG bucks, don;t get me wrong, but I can enjoy other parts of a hunt just as much now