MN/Kyle

Thanks. x2.

quiksilver

So Rimjob - let me guess.... You're the poor schmuck who's eaten his tag for9 straight years because you're "waiting for the big one." LMAO

See ya at the check station, porkchop.

MichaelP

In GA we get 10 does and 2 bucks 1 any size and 1 with 4 pts or more on a side. I live in a brown and down state and that is how I was raised, but I am fortunate to hunt a bow only county and can actually expect a deer I let walk to be around next year. That does not mean I will see or kill it but to know there is a chance helps me sleep better. I will never kill abuck I will not mountagain but I do love to go to my grandfathers lease in east GA and whack does with the meat hunters. They probably kill100 or so deer a year with more than half being smallerbucks and they love it. I guess as long as you enjoy itI say to each his own.

bawanajim

Why is killing a buck so important?

Basically because its all I care to kill ,I live to hunt I enjoy every moment of it.Unlike some here,I do not for a moment feel my trivialinput on the states wildlife resources makes an ant's **** worth of difference.
I will kill a buck when and where I chose,if the buck I pass gets shot twenty minutes after I pass on him by a neighbor great job for that guy that killed him. He's now out of the woods and not molesting any more of my bucks.[:-]

Some of you take this hunting way to serious, we hunt we kill, pretty simple. Kill what you want ,cause I'm gonna.

GR8atta2d

Perhaps Jeff was referencing me, which is fine. We had a chat the other day about regional differences and I told him of howmany of usin Pa/Ohio were brought up. A buck was the goal to settle for less was in a word "wimpy". NOW before you jump me..let me say this is how we originally learned. Those of us that went beyond the poker table chats, with the elders, under a haze of cigarette smoke and the smell of whisky, learned much later that taking doe was neccesary for the good of the herd.
The newer generations (Not younger as a stereo type but rather newer folksto the hunting scene, be it age or when they took it up) and again not bashing anyone are very happy to take doe. So us older guys don't need to feel the burden of managing the "public" herd. Heck guys line up to do it for "us". So we don't need to change our beliefs.

Now years later we have killed our share of Spikes, 4-points 6-points etc..The joy and challenge is now in the chance to take a larger antlered deer. We pass on bucks, many folks, in the same region,think we are liars, or just plain loco, when we tell them that.

So to the question is killing a buck important, well prior to reading this thread I started one on Time vs goals. You can get my insight there.In summary, to me killing a buck is not important, but given the opportunity, it will be one i'm proud of be it horn porn, company, situation, uniqueness..etc

GMMAT

Ya just don't get it.

WHY anyone else hunts.....or what THEY take from it.....is actually none of your business. It really IS that simple.

MATHEWS PA BOWHUNTER

excellent point i couldn't agree more enough said!!!!!!!!!!!

GMMAT

Nope, GR8....I was REALLY referencing TN![8D]

livbucks

Ryan, I didn't read the whole thread because...IT'S LONG!!

I too started out with the mindset of shoot any legal buck...shoot it now before someone else does.
Now I just like to interact with the most mature buck I can. Even if I don't shoot him. I get the same satisfaction out of just seeing and stalking or trying to shoot a nice mature buck. I tell the stories of the ones I've missed with the same fervor and enthusiasm than the bucks I've shot. I remember the days of having encounters with big bucks just as much if not more than the kills. The kill is almost unimportant in my gauge of satisfaction. Sure, I feel a high when I am successful, but it doesn't matter to me. When you hunt for your own reasons, your own enjoyment and peace, and not for the competitiveness and "something to prove", the baggage of all that falls away, and you almost become lost in the wild, and forget you are "civilized".
Being at close range of a mature buck is an experience like no other. They are so attuned, so suspicious, that the act of trying to make the shot is a tightrope walk. You know that one slip up, one eye blink at the wrong time, and the buck wins.
As far asI can tell, the more bone mass on his head, the higher the level of difficulty. The size seems to indicate experience and maturity. Knowing, Awareness, intellect.
I guess that's why big racks are sacred symbols of success to me.
A big rack is a sign of accomplishment, for both the buck, and the hunter.

GMMAT

I know what you're trying to say.....and in most instances you're probably right. But the "difficulty" you speak of is attributable to age, alone......regardless of the headgear.

Not arguing....just pointing out.