I agree that most of the best bucks are taken out as a young deer but you haven’t answered the question that was aske…..

Let me state it another way….If what y’all are implying about all of this were to be true….. then by that rationale we would be much more heavily targeting what would be considered the “good” genes and taking them out of the herd more so than the ones you’re calling a cull. The cull was likely passed on as a young deer and maybe even gets passed as an adult while the trophy gets whacked every time he’s seen often even as a young deer. The effort to take that good gene out is way more intense. So if it was possible to take either one out….good or bad…..we would have most definitely seen the results of it from the good one disappearing. However, that certainly does not seem to be the case. If it was then the bell curve would be heavily shifted toward the low end more and more as we whack the good gene out each year. It just doesn’t work that way though no matter how many ways folks try to justify it. You may high grade the good ones and only leave the bad ones to get older but genetics are changed. And surely if you can see that if we haven’t been able to remove the good gene through shooting the hell of them at a way higher clip….then that old cull deer you shoot from time to time for sure isn’t gonna do anything to change it.