I'm with atlasman all the way...

As far as I'm concerned there is far too much emphasis on killing a big rack and I think it is unhealthy for hunting. It gives the anti's fuel and it teaches our young hunters that successfull hunting is all about horns. That may be what its all about for some of you but it's not for me. I've been deer hunting for 40 + years and I can tell you there is a lot more to hunting than that. I can tell you from experience that the thrill and satifaction of killing a big rack is temporary but its the sum of all the other joys of hunting that brings me back year after year. And BTW this condescending attitude that if you don't pass the smaller bucks is really irritating. Who do you people think you are to be telling anybody how they should be enjoyging the sport. I think maybe a big rack is all that matters to you and you realize how tough it is so you are trying to get everybody to cooperate to simply make it easier to get one. Though the strategy may work, I don't think it has anything to do with being a better hunter.

I prefer to impress upon our young hunters that taking a trophy animal is only a small part of the deer hunting experience. Looking back, in my 40 + years I've taken maybe 5 or 6 of what most would agree are trophy size. If in that time that number had been twice that I don't think my overall experience would have been enhanced even slightly. In the remaining years I have, if I kill a couple more that would be great. If I don't that's O.K. too because killing a big rack isn't what its all about.

Here is what Fred Bear said about why he hunted...

"I hunt deer because I love the entire process; the preparations, the excitement, and sustained suspense of trying to match my woodslore against the finely honed instincts of these creatures. On most days spent in the woods, I come home with an honestly earned feeling that something good has taken place. It makes no difference whether I got anything; it has to do with how the day was spent."

"Life in the open is one of the finest rewards. I enjoy and become completely immersed in the high challenge and increased opportunity to become for a time a part of nature. Deer hunting is a classical exercise in freedom. It is a return to fundamentals that I instinctively feel are basic and right."

"I have always tempered my killing with respect for the game pursued. I see the animal not only as a target but as a living creature with more freedom than I will ever have. I take that life if I can with regret as well as joy, and with the sure knowledge that nature's ways of fang and claw or exposure and starvation are a far crueler fate than I bestow."

Interesting, and not a word about killing a big rack.