I like this rule also, not sure how yall do it but I count a skull mount as being mounted. There will be a lot of 5.5 and older bucks that just don't have the antlers for a shoulder mount. If you don't want to at least do a skull mount then don't pull the trigger. Don't have to count nothing or measure nothing pretty easy and simple.

Personally, I think that is the very best way to go about it. We did the 8 pts or better outside the ears until we realized that's the best way to wind up killing your best and genetically superior young deer (high grading).

ours is 6 point or better outside the ears. We are going to 8 point next season i believe. if you shoot one and he doesnt meet the requirements, its a 100 dollar fine the 1st time. next time you gone!

Yeah, that's the only exception I can think of. We've only seen/killed one of those type deer in the last 15 years. They don't get that old typically where I hunt, they're dead long before.

We just say a mature deer. Something that as soon as you see it, you know it is a bigger deer. If you question it, then probably not a deer worth shooting. Plus i had only seconds of seeing the buck I shot this year. He was in thick stuff then circled where I couldnt see. He was at 50 yards before I new it. I didnt jave time to size him up. But as soon as I saw him i knew he was a good deer. I try to gauge outside of ears from front, or past his eyes from side. Also look for short legs and fat neck.

I've always thought a good rule would be, "you shoot it, you shoulder mount it, unless jawbone aged at 5 or older."

I shoot em by age, have to be five er older, gun or bow.

. I mount em by score 130 for a bow, 140 for a gun kill. Some variances do occur.

Y’all aren’t helping answer the mans question. Y’all are imposing your own personal or club standards for mostly trophy management. Above he wants to protect or reduce the harvest of 2-3 year olds getting shot. They want to shoot nice deer and have fun while doing it. No mount it if you shoot it, only kill 5 year olds etc.

A simple IS restriction of 14 or 15 inches OR mainbeam requirement of 18” would help y’all meet that objective. Make this very simple.

Cut down on the number of bucks allowed per member to two and manage the deer using "total bucks harvest" instead of age.

Thats exactly right, Matt. Somewhere between QDM and TDM is what we are going for. We kill a couple deer in the 130s or 140s every year, and I think we would kill more like that if we could find a way to let the 110-120" 2 and 3 yr olds walk. This past week we had a 2.5 yr old 8 pt with a 19 inch spread killed. A couple nice 3.5 yr olds have been mistaken for older deer and shot too. We are all targeting bucks that are 4.5+ but want to adjust the rules to where our minimum requirements will save 2.5-3.5 yr olds from being shot

Only one member has killed 3 bucks. 2 of them were 5.5+ and the other was a nice 3.5 yr old with his bow (which I have no problem with...bowhunting is tough)

This is exactly what we deal with. Most of ya'll must be hunting wide open harwoods to be able to see all the criteria ya'll are putting on a buck. We don't have mature bucks walk out into the wide open. I guess we need to find another place to hunt .We have a saying. Think long, think wrong. In other words when you see the deer you need to be like,"Oh crap! If your having to count points, estimate main beam length, estimate spread, well probably don't need to shoot. When you see a mature deer, you know it. BTW, rack size and being mature are sometimes completely different things. Most of the time 2.5-3.5 y/o good genetic deer are being shot and called mature.

How many bucks are y'all killing per season?.....how many acres?

I agree with some of the other posters that you can have all the rules you want but until everyone is on the same page it's gonna be drama and complaining from the folks that don't realize they can't grow if they are dead. Cause you know when cousin Bubba shoots that young buck the only thing that is gonna happen is you now have less of a chance of taking a mature deer

Unfortunately there is no way to protect all of those young deer unless you can get everybody to shoot age only. That is VERY difficult if you have more than a handful of people. The best way to protect them is with an either/or criteria, and some will still get shot. Another suggestion like CNC said is only shooting a certain percentage of the buck population each year, regardless of age. You’ll have a sustainable level of all age classes that way. Lot of people hate it though, because you will have some young deer killed.

The great thing about managing that way is that there’s no longer any kind of criteria for if a buck was or wasn’t a shooter after someone brings it into camp. If it makes you happy then that’s all that matters. That really simplifies things. I’m willing to bet that jdfarm’s club is already pretty close to managing that way now.

I have a buck example picture on my phone I'd like for someone to post here since I'm pic posting illiterate. Can someone help a bro out? I think it's a 5 yr old, need verification

15-20 bucks a year on 2,000 acres. We usually kill about 10 mature bucks, 2-3 kids first buck or their “best buck” and then there’s usually a handful of deer that are 2.5-3.5 that were “mistakes”

I wish we could shoot by age only. Most of us do. But there’s a few guys that don’t hunt much or haven’t killed as many deer or just like to shoot I guess. They will follow rules, but given our current rule of 14” they kill some younger deer that have potential to be 130-150” deer in a year or two

Years ago I took over 1400 acres of private land not too far from you….maybe 10 miles to your southeast. It had only been hunted by a couple family members for years..... and at best they might have shot 1 or 2 bucks off it per season. It was barely even hunted. When I took the property over and first put my cameras in the woods…..I thought there would be a mature buck behind every tree. It just wasn’t the case though. Sure, there was a few …..but nothing like I had envisioned. The harsh reality of it is that only so many bucks will make it to be 5-6+ years old even if you don’t shoot any of them.

I’d give consideration to going to a 2 buck limit for your club. If there aren’t many people killing more than that anyways, then most members would likely be ok with it. Here’s the thing though, even though you may only be shooting two bucks now…..when you suddenly don’t have that third buck to fall back on…..you’ll become more selective about shooting that second one. Some of the people who killed two this year will only kill one next year due to holding out. It also really simplifies things…..no pictures of what a shooter looks like…..no trying to count tines…..trying to determine spread, weight….yada yada……You get two bucks….choose wisely.