What do you kill?

I know it's not the only part of the equation, and I know that genetics don't always present themselves in every deer in the hood....

But what we kill and what we let walk does play into it.

Kill does and big bucks
Kill the bucks that will never be anything
Nothing less than something worthy of mounting
Etc etc

How do YOU come up with the rules for your club as part of your overall management plan?

I’m killing whatever gets me excited. I’m probably done with clubs may hunt land with a small group of friends but no more clubs.

We do state law. If it makes you happy choot em . That being said we have a good group of guys that don't shoot a lot.

We actually don't have a club. There are 3 of us on a few hundred acres. Family. Just thinking about it. We used to basically shoot a few does each for meat, then shoot moint worthy bucks. Have been thinking about switching to more of a cull back philosophy for the next few years and letting the does go.

Im lucky to have a small tract of family land to hunt and have permission on some adjoing ground and and some neighbors that are very conservative on what they shoot with that said we kill a doe a piece off our ground that's me, my wife and paw n law and I limint myself to 8 pt or better and try to make sure there 3.5 at least ad what we doing seems to working really good as we seem to have saw improvement in quality of deer and buck to doe ratio

my personal limit is five and older bucks regardless of headgear, unless he has broken main tines, then he gets a pass till next year. My place, your place, any place. And as few does as I can get by with. If I get a couple three donated I won't kill any does.

Fortunate to have my own place. I usually take a doe early in bow season for meat. Then I start looking for a buck that makes me happy. Doesn't have to be a wallhanger. Sometimes I get. Sometimes I don't. Just enjoy being out there.

Depends on the needs of the club. I was in a club in Walker Co where the management program wanted a certain amount of does shot, so I took a few out to do my part. I was in a trophy club this year and killed one buck with a bow which was an 8 point about 15 inches wide. I saw a pile more bucks last season and let every one of them walk. Shot at a 150 class buck the week after Christmas running does and I guess I got under him. Under normal circumstances I'm going to shoot big deer and let the does and small deer (by my standards) walk.

We follow a simple philosophy...... That is we don't "need" to shoot anything. If you removed humans from the situation I believe the deer herd would do exactly what the deer herd should do. There would be the exact number of deer, age structure, etc. that you are supposed to have.

But that wouldn't be very much fun.... So - If you "want" to shoot whatever deer you feel like, OK. BUT - we aren't managing the deer with our trigger finger. We are managing the deer with hands on the end of a set of pruners, post hole diggers or tractor steering wheel.

We don't have rules. Simply because we don't have anyone that likes to blast deer. If you all think the same way about what you are doing why do you need rules or limits? We talk about deer on Game Camera pictures and that's it really. We talk about work that needs to be done, where we are hunting and what we are seeing and how to improve our situation.

No does

If you shoot it, you mount it.

Quailman would be screwed.

If it makes me happy

x2

Usually a lot of Time

Calling Quailman....


Dr. B

I ain’t killed a doe in Alabama in 10 years. I shoot 3.5 or older.

We kill a few does for the freezer, we have a lot of them, and as far as bucks go, you shoot it, you mount it. Only exceptions to buck rule would be an obviously old, 5-6+ yr old built like buffalo obviously over the hill with a crappy rack. I've seen several of these but never gotten around to killing one. Keep saying I'm going to just to see what one weighs. Looks like it has to be 225-250 lbs, maybe ill actually do it one day and see

Mature Deer!

I kill a lot less these days.
I get to thinking about the work involved and I back off the trigger more often than not.

3.5 and older and a couple of does

I typically like to touch off on the 30-60 pound ones. Super tender meat and a whole lot easier to fit them inside the grill.

I like to shoot 2 does per buck killed. Neighbors kill enough bucks the way it is. Mature 4 1/2 bucks over 170 don't have to shoot 1 every year. Dont get big ones if you shoot all the up and comers, rather have a 170 than 2 150s.

I'm right there with you, I have to talk myself into it not out of it. As many as I've killed over 60+ years of deer hunting, it ain't no big deal. I still love to go but I might as well give them names because there's a good chance I'm not killing them

My standards are different for every property I hunt on. My family land which is really the only “ managed ” land I have a say on. We shoot as many does as we want and shoot and 3.5 yo 120” plus bucks. Which on 900 acres equals 12-15 does and 1-2 bucks per year. On public land I’m looking for any age 115”+ 8 point.

Yes, as I get older more deer het to live simply because I don't want the hassle of cleaning one before dinner.

I usually kill 5 deer per year. I kill what I judge to be 4 1/2 year old and older bucks plus however many does it takes to get to 5.

I usually kill a lot of time at my place. I have more fun on the tractor or 4 wheeler than sitting in a stand.

^^^^ this is pretty much what I have been doing for quite a few years

I ain’t killed a doe in Alabama in 10 years. I usually shoot 3.5 or older bucks but passed a nice 3.5 120 in deer last year hoping my son would get a shot at it.