.... I kill to eat. That means that I pass over the best trophies in favor of young and, often, female. Apparently that sets off a certain type of hunter, and I had no idea. I'd appreciate a conversation about it....
Depends.., a bit..., on the situation where you hunt. Does it not?
For example, I live on the East Coast, in a blu-ish state. So there is a large area where one simply cannot hunt deer, or other critters. The deer population is amazingly high, and this year with COVID, the drop in human activity has caused an even higher rise in the deer herd. In fact, if you worked the season right and bought the extra stamps, a hunter could harvest as many as 12 deer in certain areas of the state. 10 Doe and 2 bucks.
So..., out here the DNR really wants the deer herd harvested..., either hunters do it, or the front end of motor vehicles will do it.......
ME?
I don't "trophy" hunt. I take the adult deer that is in front of me, EXCEPT I try NOT to take the buck with the largest antlers...say a 6 point or 8 point....., and normally I only take a full sized doe. Because I like venison in many forms and I like to eat it and to cook it up for others.
Why don't you take the buck with the large rack?
Glad you asked...
Where I live, the dominant buck tends to keep his does on the small, non-operational farm where I hunt. It's a quiet place, surrounded by a couple horse boarding businesses which are always busy even during COVID. The farmer who owns the land where I hunt passed away, and his wife still lives there with her son, but her son is an I.T. guy, and can't work the farm other than field mowing a few times a year. So my local-big-buck likes to keep his harem there in a woodlot there...., and in the Spring and Summer the deer naturally congregate over there.
Now I have taken some of the young bucks that are offspring of his...., and I know he's not the same old mature buck running the show since I first started hunting there 20 years ago. But since I take mostly does, eventually one of the young males fully matures and takes over from the previous dominant buck, and the cycle continues.
So I don't care..., A hunter can if desired, go for a really large racked buck. In my area some of the guys spend a lot of time and money and effort helping that sort of buck to exist, with special food plots and mineral licks.
That helps the whole herd in the area stay healthy, as the guys can't limit access to the food and the minerals etc to just a few bucks that show large rack potential.
NOW IF a person takes a buck for the rack alone,
I do have a problem with just letting the carcass rot. The hunter doesn't have to eat any of the meat, but I'd prefer (and this is my opinion, not a judgement) that the meat be given to somebody. Even if it's just a phone call to take the remainder of the deer as the head has been removed for mounting purposes. That's fine..., the rack-hunter doesn't have to pay for a professional to break down the carcass into meat for freezing, or to DIY butcher it before giving it away. Just please don't dump the carcass.
It's different in other areas, even in my state. Some places the deer are not at all so plentiful, and thus a large rack buck is rare, or getting a chance to harvest any deer is rare, so the hunter wishes to get both a trophy and meat. Situations differ, so I suppose my viewpoint would differ as the variables differ...
LD