Depends on the use of the term for me. Killing an older deer because he hasn’t turned into the jaw dropping typical you’ve always dreamed about and calling him a “cull” is perfectly fine in my opinion. I see that the same as saying “he sure is an ugly sumbitch, but he’s plenty old enough and I sure did want to shoot him.” On the other hand, “culling” any deer with the belief you are eliminating or altering a certain gene or antler characteristic of the future herd is straight baloney. The term cull in that context is just an attempt to justify the (usually young) deer you just shot.

The same people that use that “cull” term a lot are the same ones I hear talk about “big spikes” or “big 3 points” or “big 4 points”, etc. It may be a newsflash to some of those people, but if it’s a 1.5 or 2.5 year old buck, it definitely isn’t “big”.