Great advice. As an adult onset hunter (started at 34) I made the mistake of thinking I could find big bucks in the first few years and got pretty frustrated when the only time I saw them were on cameras. I adjusted my expectations and started focusing on does and smaller bucks until I really get the hang of it and I’m much happier to have meat in the freezer than antlers on the wall. The big antlers will hopefully come eventually but at only 5 seasons into deer hunting a doe or two and maybe a 3 year old buck works for me.

I haven't yet found a good recipe for antlers.

Totally agree. I hunt for meat and a 2 1/2 yr old buck yielded 70 lbs of meat last year. Good eating through the winter and I never once measured the antlers for a 'B&C score'.

Great video, this great for hunter recruitment and retention ! Here in Pennsylvanis we have point restrictions and excessive Doe harvest .

On our place we give the bucks four full ( actually 5) seasons to see what they have. We have had so many 8’s it’s crazy. So two years ago we got a few extra people and let them have at it. And also last fall in October and first week of gun season. Best thing we’ve done for years. Several larger older bucks showed up in late November.

I have been hunting whitetails for over 20 years now. 12 years into that venture I was getting wrapped into the trophy buck routine and it became work, and extremely stressful. After a couple season eating nothing but tag soup i took a step back and realized i needed a change. In 2015 i sold my compound and picked up a recurve and i have not looked back. It changed hunting for me. It made hunting, hunting again. Just like i was 12 again. Every deer in range became a trophy again. Just getting a shot was a burst of nostalgia that words can not explain. The truth is in the pudding and the meat was so much sweeter. Long story short, you have fun hunting, you hunt more, you hunt more and you have more opportunities. More opportunities means more bucks. More bucks means bigger bucks. Hunting is bigger than all of us. Big bucks do not make the hunter but the hunt makes the hunter.

I’ve only been deer hunting for 3 years including this coming season. All I care about is getting meat in the freezer. I don’t care how big the antlers are. If I get a big one, that’s great. But it isn’t a sticking point for me.

Great perspective.

I have been hunting for 25 years. I have a young family now so time is important but also would rather have meat than big antlers. In my state we can shoot 4 doe and 2 buck. For me in the first half of archery is brown is down with the exception of yearlings. In my perfect world I will shoot the first buck I see and does, then focus on a mature buck the rest of the season.

So happy to see this type of content. Wired to hunt helped me set my expectations for my first season. I had a buck or doe tag so I told myself I would shoot at any deer I could take an ethical shot at. I was successful and harvested a 1-2 year old non-typical buck who had one antler and one broken antler.

When I started bowhunting in 2009 I had some high expectations of shooting a nice buck…even though in all my years of gun hunting the biggest I ever shot was maybe a 110. I shot several does in the first few years. And had more and more encounters with big bucks, but so I would pass on some smaller bucks. Remember having an encounter with a tight racked ten point and I let him go. Mainly because I felt the pressure of shooting one “worthy” of Facebook. Finally in 2017 I realized that I had gone 8 years in archery and I had yet to shoot a buck. It was time to be realistic and cut my teeth. A gnarly 7 point caught my attention and it was amazing to hear him crash after a perfect heart shot. Shot what I thought was a big buck two years later as he chased a doe by my stand. Big body, grunting, heart pounding…after a missed shot he gave me a second chance and he went down in sight. And I lost it. Tape said he was 115. And I wasn’t disappointed at all. I’m getting closer and closer to getting one of the big guys down…but until then I’ll keep enjoying my hunts, gaining experience, and shooting what gets me excited in the moment. -Trav W

Great video! Last year in Wyoming on a 4 day muley hunt, everyone was waiting for Mr. Big. We were seeing plenty of deer but no big bucks. Came across a 2x3, 2+ year old buck, nobody wanted the shot. With 1.5 days left in the hunt and a cold storm coming on the last day of the hunt. I put him on the ground. My hunting partner made fun of me for taking a meat buck, but in the waning hours of the last day of the hunt, he dropped a 3x3, not much bigger than mine, that presented an opportunity. The bonus was they were by far, the best Muley meat, I've had in the freezer for quite some time, and as you noted we had a great hunt, and full ice chests coming back home.

Does are made of meat too.

Awesome video. Im now at the point of hunting mature deer but before now, this is something i wish i heard from more people. Would have made deer hunting more enjoyable during those years

I shot a forky buck and a mature doe last year in my first year hunting and don't regret either. Both taste delicious and my Wife and kids all love deer meat now.. I am looking for a more mature buck this year but will gladly take a small one in December if I don't get the buck I am after in October or November.

Amazing advice hands down

No qualms shooting a forky or spike. The pack out and drag is much nicer. Hats off to those who target the big boys. They are different animals.

Shhhh. Don't tell them not to go for the smaller racked bucks. More for the rest of us with some sense.

You didn't answer your own question. I appreciate your video and good production values. What is the rationale, biologically and with herd management practices, for killing young bucks and does? Why is there a distinction between bucks with "at leaset one unbranced antler" and those with two small but branched antlers? How is that minute distinction justified biologically?