A few year back, I shot what I thought was a large doe during muzzleloader. When my wife came out to help me load it, she said, "this smells like a buck". In fact, it was a "shed buck" in December and I did not even notice. Really bummed me out, but it could have been genetic and worth culling anyway (it was in good body condition). I am really careful not to shoot buttons in recent years, but I am a bad judge of size on the hoof which usually means close shots. I try to look for behavior or take one out of a family group at yardage, but nothing is failproof. Your older button was probably a good cull as well. I consider the twisted "pandemic buck" that I took this year to be a cull too, since even if the old 12-point wasn't twisted, it would score poorly due to tine length. I am not "score crazy", but I still trophy hunt. I will not lose track in which year I took this twisted rack. The whole year has been "twisted". I do like being in the woods, but, as I age, I am often not so eager to sit in a stand when it gets really cold...
