The Rack

[DaNewb]

Of course this is all hypothetical...

You have a 4-point buck in your sights. A forgone conclusion that deer is coming home with you if you fire.

Except you do not care about the rack, you know you won't get it mounted, you don't even have the wall space back home to hang it...in fact, you don't even want to pack the head and antlers out of the woods.

It's a big deer with a lot more meat on its bones than any of the does you've seen, and that is all that matters.

Do you let it pass so that someone who does care about a nice mount such as this can take it and hang it on their wall, or do you fire and fill the freezer, leaving the rack to the shed hunters?

 

[Pathfinder101]

I'm shooting. 
Lots more meat off a mature buck than a younger one.  Rack won't do shed hunters any good in WA, that would be a "deadhead" and in WA you can't pick those up.  Killing a mature buck (4-5 years old) means that you are taking an old deer out of the habitat and making room in the carrying capacity for younger deer to survive.  That 4-5 year old buck probably only has another year or two that he's going to live anyway.
Donate the antlers to a Hunter Education program for wildlife ID classes if I don't have room for them at home.
The fact is that "Trophy Hunting" aligns best with the North American Model of Wildlife Management because you are taking an older animal out of the population that has already done most of what it was going to do on the planet anyway. 

[Ghost Hunter]

Shed hunters can't take a dead head.  Might want to check regs on if head needs to come out.

[hunter399]

If you can pack meat,you can carry the head.
I'd say invest in a game cart,or a support system of family and friends to help pack.
Or hunt a lot closer to the road.
With CWD,your cutting out lymphs ,or taking the head to check station.
Even a spike I'd bring home for dog chews.
They have compact meat saw or hacksaw you can carry to cut the skull plate and still have a mount. Without carrying the whole head.

[boneaddict]

If I need meat in my freezer the legal animal will be taken.   If the meat isnt needed or wanted, then dont shoot the animal. Take a photo, the hunt has already happened.     Meat comes out first.  Antlers last, some states that is the law. (alaska)