Hunting for almost all Americans is a hobby, not for food. One could buy more food with less input of time working at McDonald's. The reason hunters take few trophies is because animals must have good avoidance instincts to get that old. It takes more skill to get a good shot at a mature animal. Meat hunters that I know convince themselves that they are on higher ground, but really are not able to fill their tag with an older animal. I have taken plenty of younger animals as I was developing my hunting skills. I had 5 does right under me yesterday and three were mature. I let them pass to keep the younger bucks away from my meat-hunter neighbors. They are not young or new hunters, and you can hear the volley of shots that occurs whenever anything brown runs by. I shot a doe on opening day of bow for the freezer and to keep the buck-doe ratio in line. It ran less than 10 feet. The antlers in my post above are from opening day of gun and he ran less than 35 yards. Well placed shots in mature animals. Hunt as you will, but don't pretend that hunting is for food for most Americans. I will take a couple more does for local families that need the meat, but their time is better spent working than hunting.
