Did the right thing by passing Golfpro. I'm in the same/similar area. Deer herd is healthy and balanced thanks to many hunters like yourself. Good ratio of doe:bucks because people aren't too macho to take a doe rather than a forkhorn. Lot's of very nice 3 1/2's and up for those looking for a nice trophy. And even if you pass on a buck and someone else shoots it, well there's probably a 1 1/2 year old that he won't be shooting, so it will get a chance at another year.
People like you help make hunting not only better for yourself, but for others. Good work, keep it up. Never mind the cavemen who can't progress past the toddler "mine, mine, mine" stage. Those types are becoming fewer and fewer.

We shoot maybe 3 out of 20-30 bucks on our property each year. So, we basically "pass" on 27 a year. We shoot whatever buck we have a chance at and that deer's father, son and brother will still grow another year.

Could you expand on your philosophy a bit? If you shoot the first buck you get a chance to shoot, does that mean you saw 27 before him but couldn't shoot?
Do you shoot a spike because it is the first buck you have a chance at? how many guys and what size property are you referring to? Sounds like three guys.

To "pass" something you have to be given the opportunity to take it.
If you haven't seen them, you haven't passed them.
If you haven't allowed something to live based on your choice, not lack of opportunity, you haven't passed them.
If you shoot the first male deer to come through, that's nearly the same as a "brown and downer."

Yeah, I guess that's why I asked. Perhaps .308 didn't word things the way he meant, or perhaps that's exactly what he meant.
I like your explanation.
I'm also not a fan of the "Don't pass on your first day what you would shoot on your last day". All that means is that you already have it in your mind that you will shoot a smaller animal later in the hunt, and therefore not sticking to your "1st day" standards. Why have standards at all if you aren't going to follow them?

What I mean is, we hunt on 3000 acres of overgrown clear cut. Between sightings and trail cam pictures, we see at least 30 bucks a year. Despite our best efforts, our harvest numbers are very low and about 95% of our deer survive every year.

So, basically, we could harvest any buck we wanted and 90% of the buck would still get a year older. And those are just the bucks that we know about.

Another way to put it: we don't have the harvest numbers to make any impact on a herd so QDM or brown/down would have the same effect. Like swatting 1 mosquito in Canada.

We have a 3 point a side antler restriction so there is no shooting spikes. But, if we killed 3 spikes out of the probably 50 bucks running around the mountain, there would be no noticable effect on the quality of the herd.

Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense then.
Reminds me of a group I occasionally hunt with in Northern MN. About 10,000 acres to hunt. They do deer drives, each section gets hit once per season. It's very thick and not many guys, not many deer are harvested (especially older bucks) as they stay put or slip back behind the drivers.
Different hunting tactics would probably help them do better, but they all seem to like the exercise and social aspects of the way they do it. Getting deer seems secondary to most of them.

That right there is the difference between a trophy hunter and a grocery hunter.
Myself I'd shoot any 8 point before a doe any day, any time, anywhere......

So you must equate yourself to being a trophy hunter then?? Because shooting a doe will fill a tag and the freezer just as well as shooting a tiny 8 point. Not sure what you meant by your post.
Perhaps you could define your philosophy better?

I would rather shoot a small 8-pointer than a doe, too. I think they're way cooler looking and you can still eat them. Kind of like a cockbird pheasant. You can eat a hen, but most guys would take the rooster, even if he's not 6.5 years old. :D