I would rather have a 6+ 140 something deer every other year. The icing on the cake would be a 150+ every 10 years.

Sometimes it is easy and I am good with that...a 170" walks out to 15 yards from my tree in Kansas, I will still call it hunting

But sometimes the adventure is as important as the conclusion

a rough scale could be one that makes the "honorable mention" in record books...I think 160 or 165" is the min. for boone and crockett



to a guy that has driven ford rangers all his life a 1/2 ton truck may be a "big" truck....


big for the area and big are two different things

you have 50 inches of antler between a 150" typical and 200" non-typical.

that's like comparing a monte carlo to a LS1 corvette


for the record, I have not shot a whitetail that will score over 150" either

For me, I try to "play the odds" and adjust my "sights" accordingly. Having hunted deep South Texas "free range" ranches for nearly 40 years, I know that Booners are not just hiding behind every corner waiting to be harvested. I would speculate that potential shots on 160+ typical bucks have really presented themselves maybe once every 5-7 years or so on avg.
Shots on nice, mature 120-140 class bucks were/have been pretty much an annual to bi-annual basis so that is what I have tended to harvest historically. Just thinking at this point in my hunting pursuits, that I'd like to harvest that one true "book trophy" to punctuate it.

Theoretically, if you're seeing and killing mature deer every year, those outstanding deer will fall into place along the way.

Yup, about every 7 years or so in my case...Though haven't always presented either an ethical shot, good range shot or in one case, failed to connect on a longer shot.

In theory and even in practice for most areas, but there are parts of the state that have never produced the size of buck that would be classified in this hypothetical as a Brute. There are counties that may only produce one or two 160's every 5-7 years, much less provide that opportunity.

Hope to kill a Beast every Wet Spring

At that point your just killing mature deer then

My area is similar - a little better maybe. There are probably half a dozen or so true "brutes" taken countywide each year. Some right in the area of my place. Just keeping at it and hoping to get a chance at one someday.

Tis what's called basket racks ... Thar be many a bucks that reach maturity do to the 13"+ culling rule... As pappy once said: i gotta be me, no one else wants the job ...

True. Everyone can hope that the stars align and it produces a great deer for the area though...at least with a good supply of mature deer around, part of the equation is there for it to happen. Then like Scooter mentioned, a wet year and some of them could explode into something really special.

I have my hopes up on 2 this year to stay alive. If shot they're good deer for the area, they stay alive and they'll be great deer for anywhere.

I have only shot one whitetail in my life. He is a nice, clean 140 ten point. I live on 68 acres with a 240 acre property on one side of me and 460 acres on the other side that the owners rarely hunt on. I've had opportunities every year to take a legal buck, but pass because they just don't interest me. There is a nice 8 point on camera all the time that I want my wife to take for her first whitetail, but I will let him pass if she takes a different buck. I know there are bigger bucks out there in the woods, I have a few pics over the years, and I would rather keep hunting for something that gets me excited, then just shoot a buck for meat. I prefer hog over deer, so that's an easy choice for me. I do shoot a few hogs every year, but if I have the chance, I prefer to let my wife shoot them. For me, that's more exciting!!!!

Based on the logic presented in this thread...If I go over somewhere in Indochina where everyone is 5'0-5'3......would I be considered tall?

I think you can honestly do both if you manage correctly. If you will let your bucks get to maturity of 5.5 or older, depending on the size of your place you can likely kill one of those per year, and if you are managing properly and have others around you managing then I'd bet every 5 years you'll get a stud that is X + 20% of the average. I would consider a 20% increase to be a 'brute', as that makes a 120" deer 144".

To them, yes, but that gets into imported genetics.

No, that would just make you (us) average

Not sure bouts you... Logicly speeking as pappy once said: i'd be a trophy at 5'7" with a spread of 38" around the equator ... i got cheap posts...

A true 145-150 inch 8 point, can be a brute. Brute has more to do with body, mass, etc rather than points. I too think with selection a place can produce mature deer every year with the chance at a record book deer every now and then.

However, in places that don't produce deer numbers to sustain the kill, raising the kill limit is not a good idea. Even a single county may produce trophy deer in one corner and no deer in the other corner.

Classic!

I'll wait on the monster. In fact, that's how I hunt now. Passed on a decent 10 point opening weekend and a really nice 9 point Saturday afternoon hunting in the rain.

I have a problem with hunting when someone has to put a number of inches to qualify their idea of a trophy. The whitetails range is so huge and so varied with habitat types for something like that. I grew up hunting when a deer was killed for the meat, not the rack. It was a time when you could only kill a branched antler buck, no does and no spikes(now you know where my love for spikes comes from ) In every hunters mind they wish to kill the biggest buck on the earth when they leave the house. I was like that when I started hunting. I went out with high expectations but killed the first legal deer in front of me, because it was usually the only legal deer seen that season. The venison was worth more to us than the antlers. I grew up hunting in a heavily pressured farmland where bucks where rare. They did not get to be much older than 2 yrs of age, a 3 yr old was old. Some areas will never have the deer that would meet some of the expectations posted on here. I now hunt where I like to hunt and shoot what I like. I like older maturer bucks and a trophy is what I like. For the last 25 yrs or more I have selected a certain whitetail to hunt. It may not be the biggest, but he is what I liked. He may not have been of a mid-west or South Texas "trophy" standards to some, he was a trophy by my standards. For me he is what I set my sights on. Last year was a buck like that. He was mature, he was great deer for this area and I knew he was going to be difficult buck to get with a crossbow. He proved me correct on all of that. He was a trophy by my standards, that is all that matters. When someone shows me a pic of a buck they took, I compliment them positively on their idea of a "trophy". I expect the same from anyone looking at my mounts or pictures from past hunts. I have a problem with hunting/hunters when someone tries demean or downgrade what someone else wants to shoot.

But they would still down on both of you...literally and physically

Yes.

I am in the brute phase of my life now, at least as it pertains to property I lease. My son has been filling tags in between brutes.