Well put. Your philosophy will pay dividends to you in the long run.

I thought you hunted Lake county. I've never hunted coloumbia Co. and am not qualified to speak on it. My bad.

Josh, i understand you from that point, but if you have private land to hunt, manage it!

I dont have a problem with that, due to the simple fact that 99.9% of bass wont live to see 5 lbs, whether you fish for them or not. I've read some studies that claim that 1 out of 1,000 eggs a fish lays will reach maturity.

Deer have no where near that mortality rate. Deer are over populated here as it is, even with the "brown its down" mentality.

I see does almost on every outing i have, and normally they are within range, now they may not be the first deer i see but i do see them, i just dont buy the meat hunters arguement because doe meat is deer meat to but it seems like most "meat hunters" take more small bucks than does. I think that alot of meat hunters think that they must kill a buck

With the unlimited tags I plan on hunting the first week the first of october the end of october and nov9-12. I'll hopefully see a lot. And I do plan on taking more does if I can. Last year some yahoos were caught baiting on the opening day of gun season and the property was quarantined for 10 days,the gun hunters got zero bucks there.
You're right though I probably will wait and see,last year I passed on several forks. I did shoot a button buck there, they are good eating but I've learned to tell the difference and plan on letting them pass too. Thanks for your input,good luck to you and shoot straight!
BTW are you ever going to get new camo,or are you intentionally going for the retro look?

I do ALL of my hunting from private land (half is owned by myself or family, the other half by a game warden I'm friends with), and we do manage it. We require the harvesting of does, but we certainly dont belittle someone if they want to take a 1.5 year old buck. I'm really not comdeming anyone who managing the deer on their land the way they want - I just expect equal treatment if I chose to manage my land differently.

Josh I do not know WV numbers, but I bet your buck harvest is way more than your doe harvest is, is this correct?

If so it is just like MI, in MI we kill plenty of deer. If we could reverse the numbers we would be in much better shape in the next decade.

States like Iowa have killed more does than bucks last 3 years or so(Not sure).

It hasn't worn to the point of replacement yet and I don't think it's hurt my sucess.

Btw, I bought that coat in 1986 and still wear it. How many people can still wear the same size for 20+ years?[:-]

JoshKeller, your avitar has a bass that is what, 10lbs. plus? Do you strive to catch the big bass or just any bass? If you strived to just catch anything, you wouldn't have put a fish on your avitar that most people would never catch, let alone, see. There are many of us who practice QDM and like I say take what makes you happy. By the look of your avitar, your fish would be a Boone & Crockett by deer standards.