A guy has to love how these threads "morph" into something entirely different than the original intent.

There is no question that different parts of the country produce different results in both quantity and quality. Just like ones view of a trophy can vary by region. Some measure a trophy in terms of simply making a kill, some by number of points, some by weight (ever hear of the 300 pound club?) and others by calibrating the inches in a rack. Each of those examples is exciting in their own right. Who could argue that?

However, getting back to the original question of passing on a buck, with the exception of the the first case (making a kill), generallly speaking the main ingredient in taking a "trophy" is the age of the animal. Regardless of how great the genetics, habitat, or the nutritional intake of the animal is, unless he is allowed to reach maturity, he cannot and will not reach his full potential in any catagory. That is not a theory or an ideology, it is reality. Thus, if a person desires to compete for larger animals in his/her hunting area one has to at least consider the option of letting the smaller/younger animals walk.

Ah, now we have a problem....As has been pointed out, there are places where one doesn't have the luxury of picking and choosing (strictly speaking) the animal they harvest. Because of time restraints or a hundred other reasons they may only be able to spend precious few hours in the stand. If a spike or a fork horn walks by I couldn't criticize their decision to kill the buck (although statstically speaking they would be doing the herd a favor if they could shoot a doe instead but I am assuming that opportunity didn't present itself). In many places there is another hunter sitting in a tree 100 yards (or less) from your position. In other words hunting pressure is so severe that it is a challenge to get in a position for even a shot. I have been there. It is frustrating.

Then there is the person that is not the slightest bit interested in horns, deer dynamics, or anything remotely having to do with a "trophy". All they know is that they are out in the woods, hunting, away from the stresses of the everyday grind. Their mind set is; If it's brown its down, if it flys it dies, if it runs you hear guns, if it has marrow it gets an arrow, four feet and an eye its going to die, wack'em and stack'em. The bottom line is as long as all this is done within the confines of the law no one has a right to require that they think any different. And by the same token, the person who subscribes to showing some discipline in letting smaller/younger bucks walk should be shown the same courtesy.

As far as watching a buck grow for 4 or 5 years and then killing him, I have (what I would consider) an interesting story on a 190" buck that was taken two days ago but I just don't have the time to include it here.

Now about that "Mine is bigger and better and harder to get than yours" issue, well, that is a discussion for another day .....