What's Wrong with Shooting Young Bucks?

[zoschag08]

On 4/1/2019 at 10:09 AM, Belo said:

kind of my motto. Target the big boys, but be willing to accept a 2.5 if the right conditions present themselves. Some argue that you should stick to your goals regardless. I disagree. 

I disagree. If you wouldn't shoot it the first day why the last? If it comes down to filling the freezer I get it but if it's just about filling the tag I don't agree with lowering your standards because the season is ending. Just my two cents, to each their own.

[Five Seasons]

20 minutes ago, zoschag08 said:

I disagree. If you wouldn't shoot it the first day why the last? If it comes down to filling the freezer I get it but if it's just about filling the tag I don't agree with lowering your standards because the season is ending. Just my two cents, to each their own.

sometimes it's about the freezer, but I think the best I could do to explain it would be to say that I really enjoy being in the woods. I passed a 1.5 the very first day in the woods last season. Had I had a rough year I may very well have shot him later on. But to punch out and be "done" very early isn't what I'm trying to do either. Don't get me wrong, a nice shooter walks into the lane on 10/1, i'm letting an arrow fly and will resort to doe hunting until gun. 

this very thing happened to me with turkey this year. 30 minutes into my first sit and i had a dead tom. I hunted a lot less harder than I normally would the rest of May.

[zoschag08]

14 minutes ago, Belo said:

sometimes it's about the freezer, but I think the best I could do to explain it would be to say that I really enjoy being in the woods. I passed a 1.5 the very first day in the woods last season. Had I had a rough year I may very well have shot him later on. But to punch out and be "done" very early isn't what I'm trying to do either. Don't get me wrong, a nice shooter walks into the lane on 10/1, i'm letting an arrow fly and will resort to doe hunting until gun. 

this very thing happened to me with turkey this year. 30 minutes into my first sit and i had a dead tom. I hunted a lot less harder than I normally would the rest of May.

Oh by all means I get where you're coming from with wanting to be in the woods. A couple years ago I filled my PA buck tag (was living there at the time) the second day of archery, no way I was passing on him. It made for a slow fall that's for sure. I guess at the end it all just comes down to personal preference

[wolc123]

I am very thankful to have never ended up with an empty (or even an insufficiently stocked) freezer, after passing a safe, legal, make-able shot at a young buck.  Although I can just about count "passes" meeting those criteria on one hand, either a larger buck (body and antlers), or a similar sized doe, has always offered up it's meat some time later that season.   

I also do not know the feeling of punching my buck tag, only to have a larger (and now off-limits) one show up later, when I am out trying to fill DMP tags.   Last gun season, I killed a heavy (182 pounds field-dressed -  on a certified scale), 3.5 year old buck on opening day, and all the bucks that I saw after that around home were significantly smaller.  The biggest downside, from killing that buck, was that I was unable to deer hunt up in the Northern zone over the long Thanksgiving weekend (doe are off limits for most of us up there at that time).   

They say it feels bad when you kill a small young buck, and later get a chance at a larger, older one.   Maybe so, but that would bother me a lot less than an empty freezer would.  One thing that skews the situation a little for me is that I do not put nearly the effort into hunting, after my buck tag is punched and my meat supply is secure.