Any 6pt or better buck passed during firearm season here in this area of Michigan will not be seen come late bow season or muzzle loader season. some one else harvested it. Very few make it past 2 1/2 years old and you can buy 5 roe tags per day over the counter here.
I passed up a weird 8 point in 2010, had huge beams but little tiny 2 inch points. I watched that deer come down the hill 50 yards from my blind cross the creek walk about 50 yards across the flood flats and start up the hill on the other side and die before he made it to the crest. Fellow next door got it and couldn't believe I had just let it walk away.

:D Al

Everywhere Ive ever hunted most of the small/young bucks I let walk end up getting shot. That is just part of it. Unless you own a lot of land or can afford to pay big money hunting mature bucks means hunting the bucks the other hunters can't get not hunting bucks they let go.

I understand your point and probably should have worded my thoughts differently. I also spend hundreds of hours building plots, I run cameras year round in several locations, scout year round, and shoot throughout the year all with the hopes of bringing home a "trophy". The challenge in Vermont becomes the limited ability to take does and the few bucks to begin with. The buck to doe ratio is somewhere around 5or6:1 (maybe worse). The rut in Vermont is not what it is in other states with a better ratio. It is simply easy for a buck to find a receptive doe. This severely limits their movement. Sure you will see the occasional scrap or rub but they are few and far between. Trail cam pics say the same thing. In a couple of high density doe areas the older bucks are generally only 2.5 There will only be a handful of 200 bucks killed in the entire state. A 120 inch deer will have people talking for miles. My point was not that it was easy for others to simply wait and pick out the buck with the most inches. There is no such thing as easy fair game hunting. My point was that knowing mature "trophy" bucks are attainable if you put in the time and effort is something that we do not have in Vermont. I'd like to think I would let the young buck live to see another year but given the herd I hunt that is difficult to do.

I have become a meat hunter.After hunting for 50 years, I have more horns than Carter has pills, and being half a century+++ the teeth have decided to leave the premises. A few mature does and buck is on the table when I go out for my winter supply. I have walked away from monster whitetail and mules, as I really don't need the horns to crow about. Already have them and the memories. Every deer that a hunter takes is his/her trophy and memory.

I hear you redgreen.

30 years ago I'd have stewed for days over blowing a chance at a wall hanger.

I still blow chances, but now I laugh at myself.

I have a pretty unique situation for me. I have a small spot that I hunt right outside Chicago that I pretty much know for a fact that no one hunts within 4 miles of me because it is the only legal spot to hunt. Heck, the only spot you really can hunt. Here, the people who own this small lot and they're neighbors want me to shoot any deer. Million dollars houses that spend lots of money on flowers to see them eaten by deer. My father who uses a crossbow will take the first buck and any doe that walks by to start the season. They are very over populated. He actually passed a nice 9 pointer this year because he knows its going to be a very nice deer this year. This is the spot I will shoot a small buck if I don't get a good buck by the Sunday of 1st gun season and need a deer for the freezer. Id rather take a doe but any deer that walks by is fair game. When I hunt my main spot in central Illinois, all the small bucks get a pass. I run a lot of trail cameras so I have history with a lot of deer. If I have a couple real good ones, It's almost an obsession trying to figure them out. They have figured most hunters out, I'm trying to be the one the figures him out. I can make 50 mistakes during the season, he just has to make one.

I think its the other way around.

He can make 50 mistakes but you only have to make one.