Well Christmas has come and gone, the temperatures are staying in the single digits, and I have been getting a great viewing through my Nikon binoculars of the younger bucks on my farm. I have been out a couple times this past week, hunting over picked corn fields in my Ameristep ground blind, and have seen five different bucks that just need one or two more years and they will be something special.

It is hard this time of year, for me, to not pull the trigger on one of these “decent” bucks because I really want to fill my bow and muzzleloader tag. However, the discipline in me always kicks in and all I have to think about is about what he will grow into next year. It seems that a lot of people will just settle for a decent buck this time of year because it is cold, late in the year, and people are starting to get burnt out. This is the worst thing that a hunter could do and especially if these are deer that you will be hunting next year. At some point in a person’s hunting career they have to decide if the farm they are hunting is just a hobby farm where they enjoy killing any deer or if it is going to be a trophy farm. Making it a trophy farm will mean passing on 3 1/2 year old deer that in the past maybe you would not have passed on, but in the long run, it will be way worth it!