I agree with passing on young bucks.Like many of you I do not want to impose my beliefs on anyone else.If someone is engaging in hunting activity that is legal it is hard to find fault with them.How ever my personal opinion is that if we are ever to see a decent level of older class bucks it will be necessary to pass on younger bucks.As a mature hunter it does nothing for me to kill a young buck.They are the most naive unaware animal in the woods.I will shoot a doe before I will kill a young buck.
I do not wish to deny a young hunter the opportunity to harvest an animal but why is it so critical for them to harvest a buck.Why isn't it every bit as admirable to harvest a doe,why does that does life have any less importance in the form of reward or challenge to the hunter.I believe it has to do with cultural issues,the young hunter believes it is more important to harvest a buck because that has been what they have been taught.
We need to work on changing the culture!In my area of New York State the only reason bucks are so difficult to kill is because there are so few of them.Our herd balance is easily 12 mature does to every buck.This is not a natural balance in any form of animal species.Why is this acceptable to our DEC and our hunting community?