Shoot what makes you happy, but I have a problem with it in two situations, and two situations only, The first is when someone shoots an obviously young buck and decides they need to justify it by designating it as a cull claiming they are going to change the genetics of the herd. If you designate it a cull because you don't think the rack will ever be desirable and all it will do is eat food that could go to another deer, that is fine. Plus, it will probably taste pretty good. The second situation is when someone shoots a young buck and then complains that they never see any "good" deer. Keep shooting the young ones and you probably won't ever see any big, old ones so don't complain.
Bingo , most people calling a deer “cull” is to justify it in other people’s eyes . Everyone knows you can’t be “the” great white hunter if you don’t shoot all 150” ers. I was for years dead against shooting any does on my property and regularly shot a spike or 3 point each year to eat . I wanted to know where every doe or doe group was feeding every day and I wanted them to be good and calm come January 1. It has worked for this long so I think I’ll just stick with it .
Shot a 5 y.o. 5 point last year , just bc he bullied the younger bucks and I had tricked a 5 year old deer and was tickled to death with him.
I consider him a trophy .
