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.

Cull or not a cull

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.

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.

Anomalies happen. I’m gonna guess at times genetics really overcompensate like in high fences

Look at pope and young and Boone and Crockett registrations and the majority will be along rivers systems and tributaries usually. I’ve been shown pics along hwy 20 from here to Decatur and those deer are bigguns. That certain soil is great for growing crops and deer.

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

I’d say that better than 95% of the bucks taken from my area, at least within 5-6 miles which is what I have kept an eye on, have a genetic disposition toward a twisted or somehow non-typical right side beam. Most are odd numbered points but even the symmetrical racks show a little twist or odd inward curvature on one side. The same side on all of them. It’s been that way for a long time as the racks hanging at camp will attest. If someone wanted to “cull” those deer for trophy potential(as defined by some), every buck and doe would need to be exterminated for I don’t know how far and a new population established.

Many many years ago I remember talking to a guy that had those type antlers. One side would be very impressive and the other side was wonky. He had several mounted. He’d say that’s all there is down there never see a different looking racks, theirs always a bad side. His club was somewhere in south of Tuscaloosa

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.

What I’d like to know is where do most of the 3 year old bucks that we let walk go. It seems like, based on cam pics, that we will have 20-25 3 year olds and the next year we see about 10-15 4 year olds. We are trying to shoot bucks 4+. Are they moving off the property? I don’t think the neighbors are killing them. I know for a fact 2 of them are not. Our land borders the interstate and it’s possible they are crossing under a couple of bridges and getting shot over there I don’t know. I do know it seems like the 3 year olds that stay, stay for years. We don’t seem to lose many 4+ year olds.

So what are the perceived advantages of having 8 or 9 year old bucks with bad antlers?

Will it somehow produce more deer? We already have plenty.

Will it somehow make others have better antlers? That seems unlikely to me.

Will it make the rest of the deer happier? That's gonna be hard to prove.

I'm not saying you are wrong; just wondering what difference it would make.

One of the key things is that it reduces the stress being applied to the younger bucks……This mostly revolves around the first and last does that come into estrous during the primary rut. When older bucks are present, they claim these does through body posturing/vocalizations and that’s pretty much the end of it. There isnt much fighting between 6 year olds and 3 year olds for example…..When older bucks are NOT present though, then there becomes intense competition between the younger bucks for these first and last does and the stress on them is much more intense and drawn out. I’m just guessing here but I would imagine you have much higher mortality rates amongst younger bucks from the rigors of the rut when the older ones are not present.