Wow...for anyone getting butt hurt by Pat (gut) is just crazy. Pat is a great guy who did nothing more than what most do on here share there opinion. he does know mineral compared to salt...as any above common hunters knows. To argue about scoring a buck via pictures is stupid for either of you to do and I find it ridiculous the little tiff that is going on here. You've got a great 6 growing there. My opinion is let him go another year...I personally find MASSIVE six pointers very very attractive as they're very very rare....however I understand people who won't "waste" a tag on them.
so.......... Are you going to shoot him? Cuz he is not a management buck he just has not reached potential. Where are the pics of him last year showing him at the same size or larger? Seems like you are labeling a buck you just want to shoot and don't want to get made fun of for shooting.
Typically if I am hunting late season I am going after one of the big bucks coming in to feed. You know how cold it can be and walking in and out over a half mile in snow I tend to stick to the all or nothing approach. It sounds like you have a pretty good plan in place to manage your deer. I try to get a younger person on a buck I dont think will get much bigger than what it is. I do not call them management or culls to them because I dont want to take away from their trophy. I think one of the biggest problem's were all of the shows we all watched that had people shooting really nice bucks on a ranch in Texas and then they called them culls or management bucks because they had less than 10 points.
