for me its a pride thing, not just shooting big mature deer, but just having them on your land, putting in the time and energy to put in the plots get the trail cameras out there and harvest a smart mature deer? nothing better than that to me, i could shoot younger deer on almost every sit, nothing against the strictly meat guys everyone should hunt the way that they enjoy hunting, but to say that me wanting to go after more mature deer because i like the challenge isnt the right way to hunt isnt right... agreed?
Nope, not at all. I would take the big deer every year if I happened to put the time in/run across said deer. Nothing wrong with trophy hunting. Just don't constantly complain about not drawing a mulie tag in the badlands when every person understands that it's not a yearly tag. My boss just waited 7 years to go after a mulie again. I don't see the point in pulling a trigger on a nice mulie every seven years. I'm able to chase them with a bow every fall, which is good enough for
me. I'm not saying the everyone needs to switch their mentality back to meat hunters, but you can't argue the fact that the world of hunting shows and pictures of big deer on the internet haven't turned the vast majority of hunters into horn hunters. When that happens, land gets shut down because they're chasing "the big one."
All in all, I'm not going to judge anyone that goes after the antler size vs. meat. What I look for in a deer should be accepted in the same fashion as someone else. But when I don't get drawn for a buck tag in 3b3, you won't see me on here complaining about land owners/gratis tags/etc. Even the one year where my dad and I didn't draw, we still put the orange on and drove around our home unit because it was time to spend together. I tend not to let the trivial aspects of deer hunting get in the way of what that time is really about.
Arrowdem, I hope you do get drawn. It sucks to sit for years without firing a gun. I'm in no way attacking you personally.