rybohunter wrote: Calling him on what? Did he do something wrong? Nobody who takes a small legal buck owes you or anybody else an explination and it is arrogant to think that they do.

There are hunters that absolutely focus on the meat side of hunting and and will take 5 or 6 deer a year if they can. They literally look forward to filling the freezers with venison to suppliment the cost of feeding their families. They don't give a damn about what sex the deer they take is or how big the antlers are on a buck, they just want to get the meat with as little time spent as possible. A great year is one when they can fill all of their tags in the first couple of days of gun season. I also know hunters that are pure trophy hunters and won't even eat a bite of the meat. A perfect season for them would be to kill 1 monster on the last possible day of the season after spending countless hours in a treestand and passing on dozens of smaller (but still big) buck. They would rather take a big buck or no deer at all. They might understand the need to trim doe from the population but would rather somebody else did it. They will shoot a doe only out of a sense of "it's the right thing to do" to improve their chances of killing a big buck in the future.

This of course is 2 ends of a spectrum. Most of us fall in between. What you value from the hunting experience should be left entirely up to you. As long as you are hunting legally you don't need to explain anything. It's time for the trophy hunters to give it a rest. If you want to pass on smaller bucks, that's fine go ahead and hunt anyway you want but please stop assuming that that's what everybody wants. Please stop trying to get everybody else to "help" you get your big buck. If its that important to you then meet the challenge and go out there and get one. They are out there right now!