what i meant is he would satisfy me but if you wanted to manage for a more mature animal then i would let him walk if there was a chance he would spread his genetics to promote more deer of his quality. Hence my saying, it depends on your management goals. i am worried as to whether or not my neighbors are worried about the population, if they arent im not going to waste my time any money for them to shoot better animals. if thats as good as it is going to get than i will take it in a heartbeat, where i hunt that is a dead deer walking. where i work i see a young deer with the potential to spread his awesome genetics for another 2-3 years before taking. and i work a low fence ranch thats capable of maintaining this deer.

If you have more his size then let him walk! If you shoot based on what your neighbors may do, then your progress will be nil! It's always cool to be able to say you could've shot that deer even if your neighbors do shoot him.

Here at home in SC he gets shot no doubt. In Illinois he gets a walk.

thats true appleater. and that might even be a better approach if you were to see your neighbor with the deer, or later. might convince them to let the next one walk if you let him know what he could potentially be. Good call my man. im always thinking of ways to keep the deer off my neighboring properties in east texas because a lot of those people shoot anything that walks by. never really thought about it that way, and ultimatley, if it makes you shake and your stoked to shoot it then do it. thats what hunting is really about! having respect and fun for the animals we are lucky enough to take!

Tough decision there no doubt, specially with the neighbors!! I feel your pain there and then some!!

He looks to me like he's a 130" buck at most. When the velvet comes off he might be smaller then I think. To be honest I couldn't tell ya until I saw him while hunting If I'd take him, he's In that borderline range for me I think.

Id take him. I have neighbours like that. He is def. P&Y.Id say he would go 120-130". I shot one that looks Almost identical and he scored 130.

But again value your choices above all. Do what feels good to you and what you think is right. As a landowner there are several decision we have to make including this one which is tough. Good luck

I agree with everything you guys are saying for the most part. With regards to worrying about my neighbors, I am only concerned that they shoot everything that is brown. It sucks, but it is what it is. There are two other bucks that seem larger on the property, however no pics yet. I have only seen them from visual scouting. I have a bigger deer on the wall, but that was with shot gun. So I am itching to get a nice buck with my bow. I guess I will have to cross that bridge when I get there. Hopefully I get there.

sounds like a good problem to have to me, good luck!

He's prolly a gross 130s, but if you want him to be bigger then pass him. If you want to shoot bucks that size then take him. He's a very nice buck, so good luck getting him if you do decide to try and take him.

There's been a lot of comments about neighbours not practicing better managment. This is prevalant everywhere. Thing that I find about this is the mature bucks only get shot out of luck most of the time.

What I am saying is the "brown is down" guys all tag out on spikes, basket 8's, little sixes or does. If you have neighbours like this your monster buck is more safe than if you had a trophy hunter next door.

I used to hunt as part of a camp in a deer rich public managment area in my early hunting days. 3 camp leases in about 1000 acres of big bush and deer swamp. Our camp and one other was "brown it's down". The third however pracrticed QDM and only shot mature bucks.

At the end of the gun week the 2 camps had does and small bucks hanging and every once in awhile a mature buck got shot. The QDM camp had 6 guys and would end up with 4-6 mature bucks hanging.

They never worried about us shooting everything because they knew the doe got shot before the big buck following even showed himself.

I let that buck walk but it ain't easy for me . I learned that odds are I'll get a crack at him next year and I think this deer is still young on his way to be a bruiser.