Who on here , besides greenhorn....

[LSUbengal]

I've passed on a few, fugged up on a few, and taken a few..........I figure it all works out in the end..........I ain't bitter

 

[Jaeger22]

I've eaten several tags. I don't know how many stories I have on the subject....well, any hunter can come up with ONE. Several years ago, in Unit 39, I saw a true Monster bedded down. At the time, it was the biggest buck I had ever seen. By the time I could get to the right mountain, he wasn't there (shock of shocks). During the course of trying to find him, I passed up a bunch of decent bucks. The most notable was a herd of 13 mature bucks. I doubt ANY of them was less than 24 inches wide and probably none more than 28 to 29, but they were all together strutting their stuff single file. It was about 200 yards and broadside. If I'd seen them first, there were two or three that I would have taken. They were all heavy-antlered deer that I would believe to be 5+ years or more. I'm 56 and do this with a passion, so I've seen a number of sights that are "why men hunt". That procession is near the top of my "remembered visions" list.

 

[Smithstation Ranch]

Like others said about Cali. If I am onpublic land and in a general tag area, anythink with forks or better, you had better pull the trigger. The average success in our area is 6% and that is with 10,000 tags. I am lucky and have private ground to hunt. I have passed on many bucks that I wish I hadn't but I always tell my self they will be there next year (local deer) and they will be even bigger. Somehow I never seem to catch up with those bucks I pass and are supposed to be bigger......... Why is that? We do have a big lion problem.

 

[Tom]

I had an elk in my pistol sites once but passed, it was too much money, which made it pretty far away for me. haha

Greenhorn must have been pretty hungry if he actually ate the tag, geeze.
Grasshoppers and ants are better tasting and more nutritious, I'm thinking.

I've passed 8 point whitetails, but only fork horn mulies plus lots of hogs, thats what I've passed the most of down here.

 

[280]

Who would think an animal would get passed up not because of size of the antlers, shape of antlers, age of the animal, sex of the animal but because of the COST of the animal,,,,that is a choice I will never have to make

 

[gemstatejake]

I have actually never "ate" a deer tag. I have eaten lots of venison though! I've passed on many bucks but i have a streak going that i plan to keep alive for as long as i can. Since i was legal to hunt (12 years old) I've never gone a season without at least filling my deer tag. Prolly seems silly to some but it seems i just can't let the streak die! Killed many a forked horn towards the end of the season after hunting hard for the big boys! I do have one buck i passed on that haunts me to this day. It was the fall of '97 and the last time I've drawn a good deer tag here in Idaho. First light on opening day two bucks stepped into a small opening in the timber below me. one was a good one. A real good one. I had killed a 180 class typical the season prior and stupidly was holding out for something better. Back then i believed a good buck had to be wide. this buck was not. It was tall and heavy and had some junk hanging off the drivers side. It did'nt give me alot of time to mull it over, but enough. I should have pulled the trigger but did'nt. Nine days later i shot a 26' wide 4x5 that was tiny in comparison and went home depressed. Still stings to this day.

 

[Big Sky]

I ate one tag in Utah. Kind'a sucked as I passed up one better than average 4x4 (probably in the upper 150'ish range), and a really cool looking smallish freak-a-zoid non-typical. The non-typical had more points than I could count coming out of the base of his antlers, but only a couple long spikes for his main beams. Really strange looking buck and in hind-sight I wish I would have shot him, but in my scouting I had seen some real bruiser's and didn't want to use my tag just yet. My partner on that hunt ended up with a buck that net scored 183. It was the one day we didn't hunt together and wouldn't you know it, his buck had a twin with him that just stood there at 80 yards after he killed his buck. My pard's brother video taped the whole thing. You know, so if it weren't bad enough to hear about it, I got to see it as well.

I also ate a bear tag in Manitoba on a guided bear hunt. I saw and could have killed at least two bears, but neither were what I went up there for. The whole hunt more or less sucked, and not taking a bear was just par for the course. Live and learn, I suppose.