I know its been talked about before from the standpoint of it not changing anything about the herd…… but if you’re still shooting “cull” bucks I think it may be time to reexamine that practice from a little different angle………In our current situation in most areas it would be better to leave more bucks on the landscape than to worry about taking one out because it may be degrading the areas trophy potential.

In other words, it doesn’t make sense to worry about “trophy management” when we don’t even have a remotely decent age structure present. If you don’t even have a 6 or 7 year old buck present in your area then you dang sure don’t need to be shooting some 3 or 4 year old for a cull……We need better age structure and better buck to doe ratios a whole lot more than we need bad genes to be culled out. The herd would benefit much more from there being some 6,7,8, and maybe even 9+ year old bucks present rather than trying to trophy manage a herd that barely produces 4 and 5 year olds.

I probably should have thrown this out there to begin with but this isnt a thread meant to tell folks what to shoot or not shoot…….it’s just a discussion on management approaches…..At the end of the day, shoot what you want to.

I’ll even throw this cull idea out there in another way………We would be better off with more trophy clubs that only shot 130+ inch bucks rather than a bunch of QDMA clubs shooting every buck that reaches 4 or 5 years old……Change my mind.

This discussion is going to be a fruitless endeavor because there are too many different opinions and variables to consider regarding "trophy management". From what I've seen from 40+ years of hunting pine goats is that the term "cull buck" is an excuse for someone to kill a 2.5 year old 5 point.

You’re exactly right CNC. It’s more beneficial to have any quality of older age class bucks in the population than the perceived benefits of culling. And that’s exactly what they are, perceived. In free ranging deer allowed to ingress and egress according to resource availability and habitat quality, culling is absolutely useless.

Cull or not a cull

There’s no such thing……You either shoot him because it’s what you’re looking for that makes you happy or you let him walk…… I see folks all the time talking about bucks that “need shooting”. IMO there arent any bucks that “need shooting” ….even if he is a 5 year old four point……The more bucks that are left the better….. The idea that you’re helping to promote any kind of better herd management by taking him out is false. If that 4 pt isnt something you’re proud of shooting then let him grow to be one of the 7, 8, or 9 year olds that exist in the population


Maybe……MAYBE……if we’re on a huge Texas ranch that truly has a maxed out age structure and population there might be a case for “management” bucks…..but our situation here isn’t even remotely close to that type scenario.

I use that image as an example. He was 5 if I recall correctly. The year before a 140 something 10 point. He as a pen deer across the road from a friend that took a dart to his butt and evidently injured it. Do injuries change the genetics?

I was actually wondering about this kinda stuff today. Some areas produce consistent racked bucks other areas seem to produce screwy racked bucks with an occasional big boy.

I still contend it goes back to soil as I think back thru the years and bucks I’ve seen killed in certain areas.

Generational nutrition, or lack of, over time in a certain area……

I hav heard injuries impact rack

I no i had lot more bucks before season in camden - i had some decent ones in camden - shot 0 - appear to be all gone - most all needed another year. Think my neighbor cut me off big time or cwd or something wiped a bunch out. After acorns they still did not come back

I shot one really good mature in clarke and a doe - lot of mature in clarke disappeared too. I feel like i need more bucks - cams only been out week - we will see - i didnt hav much after rut either - camden studs never showed again

I hear what your saying CNC and I agree with the age dynamics. I honestly never considered that having a buck you deem a “ cull” to grow old to have a behavioral importance to a deer herd. Folks also don’t keep in mind that a doe has the ability to pass genes on that could factor into the quality of a bucks rack. So taking out the buck is half the equation.

I agree with what your saying and I’d dare say that would be the majority of clubs around
Like the club I was in we arrived at 3.5 cause there was so many that had to kill horns especially for what we were paying. Then they complained about not seeing Big racks.

I remember reading QDMA forum and there were studies regarding age dynamics and antler characteristics or expression. Basically a young buck age structure versus an older age structure and antler size.

I’d venture to say the soil impacts nutrition more so than anything
Looking at the majority of Boone and Crockett entries they’ll be along river systems and tributaries. Not all but the majority.

Arkansas has some huge bucks along the River drainages but they’re not talked about. We had a huge 10 hanging in our flooded corn field along the Cache. Huge!!!!!! He’d just slowly leave out when we got there. It was an afternoon hole. He’d been easy to kill if we were allowed to.

I’d agree if that 130 was older. But I’d wonder if high grading would become an issue.

I think the genetic aspect of things is much more complex than what we make it out to be……Just imagine if we we’re able to take a wild free range buck and make a pedigree tree for him like they do with dogs……Imagine what that would look like as you went back in time to his parents, grandparents, great-grandparents……and so forth……There would be a random hodge podge of bucks and does that made up that pedigree. I’m not sure exactly how it works but I believe there’s a whole lot more to what a buck expresses than just who his daddy was……

No more so than it is now…….I would imagine that many “trophy clubs” would still identify young bucks that they all chose to let walk another year. The reality of it is that there’s probably not gonna be very many deer that reach 130 until they have some age on them……Yes, they’ll be a few anomalies but not many. The flip side though would be that you would also be giving other bucks time to reach their true potential as 7-8 year old deer that may eventually surpass that 130 mark…… Years ago my cousin killed an old main frame 6 pt with a big drop tine that scored over 130…….He had a GIANT frame on him. His son killed a 140 inch ten point that would fit inside of its rack

The biologists have long settled this dispute. Unless you control and game manage 11k contiguous acres there’s no value to “culling” deer

Not the norm and a definite exception, but this deer is from a place with poor soil quality, wheat fields, minor supplemental feeding but great age structure. Deer are only shot for age.

welllll , i cull when i saw one . one less mouth eating and burger for me .

Mount em. Hard to tell if you’re eating a cull 6 or a cull spike3456 point. Or a sure wall paper

^^^
He got some character