It has not at all for me. I got my start chasing deer long before people would even consider passing a shot opportunity at a buck. If it had antlers, it would catch a slug. There was a few guys that would let a really small one walk during now season, but not many. I think when I was young, a guy killing a buck of any size with a bow was still a pretty big deal. Deer hunting as a whole has changed. People did not spend every free minute now hunting deer for four months of the year. They just didn’t. The guys I knew hardly ever started before the first frost and very few would pass up a Thanksgiving morning small game hunt to sit in a tree. To most, “deer season “ was six days starting the Monday after Thanksgiving, and none of them would even consider working that week. The entire thing is different, effort is much greater and combined with a more wide spread population, I think folks choose to be pickier. I don’t think people let bucks walk necessarily because they don’t “measure up”, but more so because they plan to go hunting again multiple times. I base that simply on my experience. Many years I let really good deer go just because I didn’t want to use my tag.
