We’ve all heard the phrase “Let ’em go so they can grow”. As it pertains to deer hunting there’s been a large push in the last decade to let smaller bucks live longer so they can mature and grow into what many hunters consider a trophy. While there are conflicting opinions about how this affects deer hunting and people’s opinions of the deer we shoot there’s certainly no questioning the fact that it works.
Not all deer have the genetic potential or available nutrition to reach jaw-dropping status, but for those that do the difference in size that just one year may make can be staggering. Take the sequence of photos below as an example. Bowhunt or Die staff member Clinton Fawcett captured several sequences of trail cam photos of this deer in 2014 and again in 2015. His camera is positioned in the same spot, under the same tree, on the same scrape.
All photos taken with a Stealth Cam G30 trail camera. Do you think the extra year was worth the wait?
