Appreciate it but I don't know how accomplished I am considering I almost never get the buck I'm after. I do pass on a bunch of bucks every year and some of them are our "legal" shooters but they just don't fill the bill for what I'm looking for. When it comes right down to it I'm no better than the next guy. It's just that I do have tremendous trigger restraint... and I'm lazy. If I'm going to have to drag a buck out of some of the places I hunt he's going to have to be well worth the effort. My "dragger" doesn't work as well as it did 40, 30, 20, 10, or even 5 years ago, lol.
As has been mentioned on here numerous times in the past, don't ever let anyone tell you what is a shooter to you unless you happen to be in a club, etc. where there are rules stating so. Most hunters, no matter how long ago they started deer hunting, would have shot what is regularly being passed on now. Sometimes hunters progress in their attitudes towards deer hunting and sometimes they don't. Sometimes it takes different lengths of time or different amounts of deer sightings and success before any changes may be made. One's health may dictate where or how one hunts. Just as well, the time one has to hunt may dictate what he might or might not shoot. The potential any given area may have also comes into play. Point is, we all hunt for whatever specific reason/s we choose and it is personal. The only problem I have with hunters shooting small, young bucks is when they complain about not ever seeing any older, bigger bucks. There are a lot of great woodsmen out there that can read and decipher deer sign and pick a great spot to hunt. They don't necessarily require anymore knowledge than what they already exhibit. What many of them, especially those unhappy with what they're shooting do need, is to learn to take a deep breathe and sit back and watch events unfold. Many times the buck they'd rather shoot may be trailing the pack. Just as well, the buck they may be tickled to death to shoot may just be a year or two away from being there. What those type hunters need to learn is trigger restraint; something that may be harder for them to acquire than the current knowledge they have on deer hunting.
