In a plot of woods loaded with 150"+ bucks.......not much if you are a horn chaser I guess. In places where basket racks are as good as you can realistically hope for.......a 6 or 8 ptr is a nice deer that anyone would and should be proud of.
I think we would all love to be in "a plot of woods loaded with 150"+ bucks". Simply put, that doesn't exist where I am at. However, I do agree that because of the region of the country I currently live in, I have a better chance than a lot of my fellow hunters to harvest a 150" class buck. But again the point is if I don't let the little guys walk they have no chance to reach maturity.
If a 6 or an 8 pointer is as good as you can realistically hope to harvest in the area you hunt, then by all means take him with pride.
That is why you can afford to have such opinions. I have hunted well over 40 days this year with bow, shotgun and muzzleloader. Walked countless miles and hunted many different areas. I saw a grand total of a dozen deer. 2 bucks. The rest were does and only one was not running from other hunters. I was fortunate enough to cross paths with a 13 pointer who will be on my wall come summer. Other then that it has been one seriously lean year. My brother killed a 6 pt with bow and a button with shotgun. My other brother saw a few but had no shots during bow and saw NOTHING during gun. 2 out of 3 of my hunting friends got skunked for the whole year.
Try hunting under conditions like those for a couple years and you will realize just how different your opinions might be when you don't see 60 bucks a year. Not everyone lives in the Iowa cornfields. Although I did for 4 years through college
Atlas my young friend, you assume to much. I have indeed spent much more than "a couple" of years hunting "under conditions like those". For twelve years I lived in Michigan, hunting public land competing with approximately 700,000 hunters annually (Some years more hunters took to the field than any other state in the country). It was tough no doubt. Opportunities were few and far between. When I started my mind set was to kill the first thing that came by and for the most part that is what I did. As time went by killing a spike or a forkhorn no longer satisfied my desires so I let them walk regardless of whether I killed anything that year or not. I don't expect everyone to feel the same way I do. I do understand that and especially in regions like Michigan and apparently NY, where conditions are less than ideal it becomes difficult to excercise self imposed discipline. Nevertheless if we don't start somewhere nothing will ever change. It is perfectly legal to kill younger bucks so if that gives you a thrill, each to his own.
It's a shame that you are under the illusion that every hunter out there gets to watch 60 bucks a year and if 2 years go by without a P+Y buck seen it is a bummer. I am glad you are so fortunate..........but you really should understand that not all places are like yours and therefore not everyone is in your position to make such claims.
...Heh heh, Your first statement in the above quote couldn't be farther from the truth. I have been lucky enough to have hunted a number of places in this great country so I have a pretty good idea of what expect in the different regions. That is why you should never judge a hunters skill by the size of his buck. No illusions here, believe me I know what the facts are.
I am a fortunate person. They don't call Iowa "heaven" for nothing
. However few things of any value come our way without discipline, effort, wisdom, and a little luck.
I am lucky that I don't have to compete with 699,999 hunters every year now. But I am also smart enough to know that most bucks can't grow great horns until they are at least 3 1/2. Being that is what excites me, I have to demonstrate the discipline to let the imature bucks walk. Because of the effort and the time I put into this addiction that isn't hard to do.
Getting back to the original question of passing on bucks.
The last twenty minutes of the last day of gun season I had doe and a fawn out in front of me and a two and half year old eight point buck walked out at 25 yards. I could legally shoot either deer. It wasn't even a contest. I enjoyed watching the buck make his way through the woods and then shot the doe (if memory serves me correctly it is only the second deer I have shot with a gun in nearly a twenty year period). I may never see that buck again. Usually I don't. But you know what? I just might ...It could be that in the next year or two I will get a chance at him with my bow...and just the thought of that makes it all worth while.