I'm asking this as a totally honest question here, so I have no political agenda. How can you believe in the idea of killing genetically inferior bucks "cull bucks" and not believe in evolution? It's essentially the same thing, except we are taking control instead of nature sorting it out (at least the cull buck crowd thinks they are).
I can understand if you accept evolution of animals but not of humans, but otherwise you have to accept the theory of gradual genetic changes if you subscribe to this "cull buck" theory.
My point is this: many on here probably think evolution is BS. Ok, fair enough, but I wonder how many of y'all talk about cull bucks at deer camp without realizing the fallacy of your logic?

Evolution is supposed to happen over thousands of years. Inferior bucks can be due to inbreeding or damaged antlers or body injuries. The only time shooting cull bucks makes any sense is in an enclosure where you can control breeding. I've heard alot of arguments, but you're the first to bring up evolution.

My understanding of evolution is an ape becoming a man. Me shooting a 3 point at 5 yrs old won't make another deer become an elk.

Maybe I don't understand the question.

Your not lone Ben, this question went over my head also, it could just be me tho. If it is I'm not surprised. I'll keep an eye on this so maybe i can catch on to what your trying to say.

Evolution, in theory, applies to all creatures. When many people kill an inferior buck, they do so in an effort to avoid having him pass those genetics on. That's natural selection, which is the basis of evolution. You the hunter are selecting desirable traits, and undesirable ones that shouldn't be passed on.

If you believe:
1. Evolution is a load of BS
2. Shooting a cull buck makes the deer population better, in terms of antlers,

Then these two beliefs are inconsistent with one another.

Your line of thinking is flawed, us removing a deer from the herd does not promote evolution. Evolution is the gradual change of a species as it adapts to it's environment. Evolution absolutely happens, look at Bergmann's rule which states that animals in colder climates tend to be larger than those in warmer climates. Ever noticed that northern whitetails tend to be larger in body and rack then those in the south? Again, you're confusing evolution which is a gradual, natural, genetic change with artificial selection which is an attempt to promote desirable traits by removing those animals that lack them.

No, killing an "inferior" buck is not natural selection, it's artificial selection. Natural selection is what some call "survival of the fittest" where the strong and smart live longer and thus breed more to pass on their genes. With artificial selection, also called "selective breeding", we as humans attempt to remove what we consider to be bad from the gene pool.

Again, you're confusing evolution which is a gradual, natural, genetic change with artificial selection which is an attempt to promote desirable traits by removing those animals that lack them.

.

I would call that adaptation not evolution. But I still don't get the OP original line of thinking.

Call it what you want. Evolutionists would say the gazelle got so fast because of the cheetah, right? Well what happened to those slow gazelles? They got eaten! The slow genes didn't get carried on. Well with the cull buck theory, where do all the small antler genes go? They die off at the end of a gun, no different than a cheetah, in the end. Dead is dead.
Please tell me if you think I'm wrong, and how. I think it is very interesting (regardless of whether I actually believe it)

natural selection selects for traits that improve an animals ability to survive. Has nothing to do with man shooting bucks that don't meet some artificial criteria that has nothing to do with survival.

you cannot change the genetic makeup of a HERD by culling antler traits you don't like, those traits are already spread throughout the herd. You can kill ALL the three year old eights, leaving tens to breed and twenty years down the road you will still be shooting those pesky eights.

artificial culling and evolution have nothing to do with each other....