tageater, Naw, them whitetails are OK, like i've said before i'd rather eat one than a mulie but to get a really big whitetail MOST of the time, your talking a guided or private property hunt that costs big bucks. I started on Blacktails at 10, 44 years and many nice ones later, i still want to get a real smoker. Yearly though, i'd load up the chevy and head east for big Mulie's. Some years i'd hit 2 states but always at least one. i don't know... hunting them just gets in your blood, the trip, the country, the chase, being selective, and usually, the long shot if your lucky or work hard enough to find the one you want.
I suppose the same happens with whitetail hunters. Lord knows there's been some monsters killed in the last 10-15 years. But when it comes down to it, i'm here on this site and particularly, on this page cause what extra money i have to hunt trophy deer, i'm gonna spend it with the idea that i'm gonna kill the biggest typical or non-typical [don't really care which] mulie buck, that ever was.
Taking a deer, a big ol smoker buck was the goal but as time passed, i found it still pleasing to come home without filling my tag. As i said above, those hunts where i saw game and passed on good deer waiting and hoping that Mr. Big was gonna show, were still succesful. Hard to describe the feeling but i guess my trophy was in doing what i had set out to do. I knew i could have taken one of those lesser deer, didn't really need the meat, didn't need to kill a deer. By passing on those good bucks, i actually felt great on the drive back home, already planning and skeaming, the plan, that big SOB was there and i was thinking already just how i was gonna get that monster, that toad, NEXT YEAR!!