That would be highly skewed. I know of quite a few killed by members over 130” that aren’t posted on here. 😁

Here’s a thought. Maybe it’s not that the 130”+ deer don’t exist, but more so to the fact of that they don’t exist on the property that you hunt. In my limited experience, Good quality properties with minimal pressure that hold 130”+ deer are more likely to hold several 130” deer, and hold them every year. Areas with poor buck habitat and heavy pressure are less likely to hold even one and won’t hold them every year. Increasing the value of your habitat to mature bucks, while decreasing your pressure to almost nothing would in theory make it more valuable to mature bucks.

Sometimes those 2/3 yr 6 points can also reach 130. This one was 129 and change. Jawbone indicated he was old as well 6+.

Ijust want to kill old deer...big score dint matter to me

I don't think you will ever get people to let them walk in most instances.

Of course, I think it could be addressed by shortening rifle season...but that aint happening.

You mean people kill big deer that don’t get put on aldeer or FB?

So I’ve heard. 🤷🏼‍♂️

This line of thinking carries some weight in my opinion. If one was to have a quality property with a lot of acreage that is managed from a lot of aspects. It can be assumed those individuals are reaping the benefits of such a property if they are doing their part with trigger restraint.

I will offer this. If you want a 130 inch deer and that represents 20% of the 5 year old age class then currently in the State of Alabama on 99% of the properties I have ever stepped foot on.... You have ZERO.

The reason you have ZERO is because you have ZERO 5 year old deer. Why? They ALL got blasted somewhere between the ages of 0-3yrs.

Facts. They get in the way of a good discussion sometimes.

100% Goat killer.

It ain’t zero but it ain’t far from it.

So out of 200 + bucks that represent the best bucks your clients have killed that year. Only 7% of them score 130 or more. That pretty much tells you where your expectations should be, and most of ours are out of whack, including mine. Would be very nice interesting and if there was a way to know from a processor and I mean a place that just processes deer not one that does that and taxidermy out of all the bucks brought in how many score 130 or better. If yours is 7% it has to be 1-2 %.

I know a processor and taxidermist that will process over 2,000 deer a year, and shoulder mount less than 200. Of the 200 maybe 30% are over 120” in a normal year. This year he only took in about 120 heads but it’s the largest percentage of 125-150” deer I think I’ve ever seen. It’s far higher than past seasons.

I hunt a military base in central AL, not an area with a reputation for quality bucks. It's 12,500 huntable acres, with roughly another 4,000 acres in "no-access" impact areas. I started hunting there in the early 2000's and we had about half the number of hunters back then as we do now, and killed a lot less deer overall. The first several years I hunted out there we'd kill at least one, some years more than one, 150"+ bucks (these are gross scores, just putting a ribbon tape on them, nothing official). I saw a 171" buck (officially scored) and two more that were 161" and 165" (both also officially scored) Another deer that was around/over 160+" gross (not official), but netted somewhere in the 150's (I think BigGameHunter) scored this deer. We would kill probably 5 more deer in the high 130's to low 140's each year also.

Nowadays we have a much higher deer harvest and I'm guessing 80+% of our bucks are 3 year olds, just a bunch of 100-115 eight points. You don't even see the really big bucks anymore, we're killing them before they get that size. They use a "4 points on one side" rule and we're killing our best deer at young ages. Or that's my opinion of it anyway.

In 15 years of hunting out there I've got a 141" gun kill (gross taped by the biologist), a 134-5/8" (official net) bow kill, and I gun killed a straight 10pt three weekends ago that taped out around 130-ish (this new biologist doesn't "score" them, he just takes basic measurements for their book). I would've told you that 141 was WAY bigger if I hadn't ever measured it. I honestly thought it was a 150+ deer in the woods. That newest 10pt is the biggest rack I've seen out there in several seasons though.....there just seems to be a bunch of skinny-necked 14" eight pts running around now. So I know there are genetics to have big racks, but we're just massacring them before they get there. I think this military base is above average for Alabama, and even in it's hayday I'd guess 15% of the bucks were honest 130 or bigger.

I think game cameras have helped us to shoot mature deer since we know most of the bucks on the 2 properties that we lease. I believe it prevents ground checking and "dang, I thought he was a lot bigger than that when I pulled the trigger".
It also helps hunting with like minded guys that aren't trigger happy

The above, what Abolt and others are saying supports what I have been saying for a long time about high grading vs. low grading. When I have suggested in the past that people learn how to low grade their crappiest inferior antlered bucks and not shoot any good antlered buck until it is at least 4 (5 is better obviously) I have been met with the "you can't change the antler genetics of a free range deer herd" argument. But right here we have a wildlife biologist confirming that low grading can be done and that doing so along with not high grading 2 - 3 year old bucks would significantly increase the quality of the buck herd in terms of antlers.

The problem in Alabama is that the best 2 and 3 year old bucks in terms of antlers get killed each year - which is high grading. Which removes the best antler genetics from the deer herd.

I will say it again: people should learn how to low grade cull bucks and not shoot any other buck before age 4 (5 is better of course)( but I will never criticize anyone for shooting a 4 year old buck).

Also and of course, you have to let young hunters, new hunters, etc. get their first buck kills under their belt regardless of what age or size antlers the buck has.

Been saying it my whole tenure on Aldeer - only to be met with criticism as being foolish, impossible to make a difference, and "an excuse to shoot a buck."

Now it looks like people are coming around to common sense.

**********

I would add this: instead of just low grading out the worst/most inferior 3 and 4 year olds I would include worst 2 year olds for the low grade list.

A 4 month long deer season ain’t helping deer get older aand bigger neither

This

I would say there numbers are a little skewed to the high side because they do taxidermy work also. More than likely process some of the bigger bucks because that is where they chose to have it mounted.