Is this what deer hunting had become?

Not many antler inches in this group.

Exactly....
How the saying go.... "look in the mirror the picture will be clearer "....

Yes I believe a lot have big antlers disease. I always tell my daughter your the only one that has to be happy with your deer

I don't fault a person for striving for perfection and in deer hunting if it's a trophy that they are after, so be it.
If they enjoy every moment/experience while in pursuit, that's all that matters.

Just don't tell me how to enjoy my hunting experience.

When I started hunting in NH about 40 years ago, if someone shot a buck the first question was how heavy was it and then how many points did it have. That was it, unless the rack was exceptional and then folks would talk about it. I don't recall any mention of scoring or inches.

I'm still pretty much the same way now. I hunt for a good buck and when I see one I try to shoot it. I got one that weighed over 200 lbs this year with a nice 10 point rack. I'd still have shot that deer if he had a 6 point rack, unless I got fooled by the smaller rack and thought the deer was not mature. I hunt mostly public land and just can't be that fussy about rack size, even if I wanted to.

Big antler disease is NOT contagious. It is a process where the no of inches is the determining factor if the hunt was sucessfull.
The hope of killing a big buck when hunting is PART of the excitement. To me there is a lot more that goes with the hunt that makes it successful. Sometimes even when I have not killed I consider the hunt sucessfull.
I have nothing against a hunter that strives to kill a big buck,it is the hunter that wants to kill one to be able to say "look what I killed" or "I got my name in the book". a hunter that passes a smaller buck in the hope a bigger one comes along is exercising his right of choice(and I respect that) where I have a problem with SOME of these hunters is I have heard them tell other hunters "you should have passed that buck" which to me is condemning the successful hunter for making a choice that they would not have made. What right do they have to tell him you should not be happy because I would not.
I could go on and on but I guess what I am trying to say is if you are honest to your self,hunt because you enjoy it,satisfied with the end result and curious to other successful hunters you should never have to worry about big antler disease.

Onebentarrow

I don't think scores, especially net scores, are a real good measure of the antler size of a buck anyway. It'll give you a general idea, but you could have 2 bucks that score the same and one of them be carrying a ton more antler than the other.

I killed a good one a few years back and had it scored out of curiosity. That is when I found out it was big enough to make the book. I was also told it would cost me money to list it to which I bluntly stated "I am NOT paying to have my name in no ##### book"
It was then explained to me that the book is not to glorify the hunter it is to honor the exceptional animal. I can understand that. Also stated was that the person who submitted the animal name is the last thing to be listed in the last category. So I did enter the one I got and I do not feel bad about it either. I know in my heart it was not entered to honor me as a hunter or as a look what I did.
I know I am proud of the deer but at the same time when in a conversation about him I am kind of embarrassed to say he made the book. Why I do not know but I am.
I do know if I had not had him scored i would never have realised just how big he actually is because i did not have any idea what a hundred inches of horn was yet alone what he scored

At the request of our County CO I put one in the Hoosier Record Book back in 1979. The buck is a good ten pointer that scored 154 net. Since then I've killed a dozen or so deer that would go in one record book or another, but I have no interest in doing that.

I once asked the president of an organization that keeps such records that if the entry is to honor the deer why list the hunters name and he said," Why we wouldn't be able to sell any record books then".