Quik’s post got me thinking.

Would your standards of a “shooter” buck change, if you thought you had a realistic chance at killing a “bigger” buck?
Shooter & big being relative to the land you hunt.

Say your current shooter is 100”. Would you pass on a 100” buck if you thought you had a reasonable chance at shooting a 130”?

And one last question, what do you consider a reasonable chance?

I would shoot the larger buck for the greater meat yield, his antler size is irrelevant to me. I define reasonable chance as me getting off a shot before he gets a running start.

MOST CERTAINLY

YES

ANY evidence of his existence in the area I hunt. If I saw him.....a neighbor saw him.....or I got him on gamecam.

NO problem holding out for a LEGITIMATE "chance".

yes, in fact I work w/someone that passes on 8 & 10's all the time. But when he gets one, its a big one. But that is what dqm is all about, let em grow to get trophy sized. Buffalo cty in wi does that with most of its land owners. That's the reason they have one of the largest trophy buck count in the state.

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Not really in my case... I have pretty high standards anyway.... and in my area the hunting is about as difficult as it gets anywhere due to high pressure from dog drivers. If a deer meets my standards and I'd be happy to have him... then I'm happy. Most of the really big bucks that get seen or photographed in my part of the world are never seen again, or sportatically killed by a dog driver/dog club member.

It would have to be a legitimate chance. I'd have to KNOW there was a bigger buck in the immediatearea, and KNOW that I had some reasonable amount of time left that I could dedicate to it.

In addition, I'd also have to take into consideration the likelihood of another hunter pinching down on him and bumping him out.There are hordes of bowhunters in my home area, so when a deer grows his third rack, he tends to attract a LOT of attention (both legal and non-legal), and thus, his days are REALLY numbered.

Now, where I hunt in Ohio, there's a lot less pressure and a better age structure. I'm WAY more likely to give a good deer a pass out there - than I am at home.

I doubt it, because I don't really have a set of standards. What I mean is, I don't go to the woods saying, "Ok, I'm not shooting anything smaller than 130" or whatever......When the right one comes along, I shoot it. If I don't have to think about whether I should shoot it or not, I let fly.

I thought qdm was about herd health?

Steve

As Quik said I would if I KNEW for certain that the buck in question was in the area I hunt and that I had a fair idea of what he is up to (i.e. bedding area, staging areas, nearby travel corridores, etc.). If that were the case then yes I'd be passing up the shooter to try to get the bigger guy.

After all, I like to challenge myself to take that next step. That's what it's all about for me.