In my ignorance, I've always assumed that about half the deer hunters out ther hunt for venison, and half for the rack. Where do you all fit in?

If I am not going to clean it, cut it up and eat it I am not going to shoot it. I do not shoot for others. If it happens to have a great rack then its Iceing on the cake.
Rick

Mostly meat. All this 150/160/170 class, twenty something inch spread trash has about driven me up the wall. I remember when deer hunters asked how much the deer weighed and not what its antlers scored. It's great to get a big buck with a big rack, and the scores can be interesting, but it's becoming the major factor in deer hunting these days..."plant this stuff for bigger racks, kill that deer because his rack will never be big," and yada yada yada. I harvested two deer this season - an average size 5 point and a doe that dressed at 94 pounds. I have lot's of meat, and I'm a satisfied hunter. Maybe someday I'll kill that buck of a lifetime and that will raise the bar for me a little, but for now, I am happy for the experience and I'll take the first decent deer I see.

I like to have my cake and eat it too, so I'll take both please

Ditto on that. Always let the "kids" walk away, let'em grow up and grow wise to give a real challenge in years to come.

I hunt to fill the freezer. If it has a nice rack on it, that is a bonus. I won't shoot small bucks though. We have way too many does around here to be shooting the young bucks. I let several smaller bucks (less than 8 pts.) walk by me this year so they can be bigger and smarter next year. I did shoot a medium sized 8 pt. that I normally would have let go, but it had a broken leg where someone else had shot it a few days earlier. Ugh, I hate when that happens.[:'(] In my book, a doe fills the freezer just as well as a buck, and it helps correct the buck to doe ratio. I would be just as happy filling all of my doe tags and never shooting a buck until the ratio is corrected. This year I shot 3 does and one injured buck. I'll bet they all taste the same!

I hunt primarily for the meat. From years of experience, I would rather harvest a young buck or a doe if it is legal. I killed some nice rack bucks in my youth from some very remote wilderness areas. Hard drags and carries. When I got home with the meat of older rutting bucks, I found it to be rather tough and sometimes unpalatable. Give me a youngun' anyday.

Clint

It all depends on how much meat is in the freezer with my son hunting now if he gets his then usually only hunt for something larger.

Just give me the cake - I won't even eat it on you - just stick it on the wall

I'm on a diet

I heard big Racks have zero calories

I'm a meat hunter by choice. And I choose Venison over Beef.