i am always hopeful to find a nice 4x4 or good non-typical also. but as sportsmen, shouldn't we all lower our standards a little as the season goes on? i am sure we all see spikes and small forkies during the year, and from what i know these are genetically inferior deer. i have heard that that a bucks first set of antlers should be a good set of forked antlers. to me, a good 2 point is maybe 14 or 16 inches.
that being said, have i been misinformed? my learning says that anything less than a good 2 point, like i said 14 or 16 inches, is not a buck that we want breeding our does. we would be better off culling these genetically inferior deer, letting the "good bucks" breed and having better genes next spring.
this is a hard concept for me. i do not like to shoot spikes and forkies, even though i think it will make hunting in my areas better. to me it is an oxymoron. to have big deer next year, i need to shoot a small deer this year.
is that the wrong line of thinking?
last year, with 2 hrs. to go on the last day, i patiently watched a spike follow a handful of does down a hillside, across a river, and up my side of the draw. i said to myself that if he came out of the draw at a certain place (which i knew he would, i had watched a dozen other deer do the same thing) i would shoot him. but when he exited the draw with the does, i could not pull the trigger. i just didnt have the heart to shoot it. he went up the hill, and i left. another hunter came down the road and said he had miserable luck and had not seen a buck all season. i told him i knew where a spike was, and asked if he was interested in seeing it. he was so excited. i helped him by pointing out the buck, spotting while he shot, and helping him get it to his truck. he was thrilled. maybe i am missing something, but i think i should have been more excited to harvest a buck, even a small one, myself. he would have made great jerkey and steaks for the winter. and i would have been helping myself out by shooting this lesser quality buck. i certainly dont want a whole population of genetically inferior deer, but sometimes it seems that is the mentality we all have. am i the only one that thinks like this?