Can't stand all those tv morons with named bucks overanalysing and overmanaging their preserves. Hell man they are wild animals. The excitment of not knowing what will show up is what keeps me going. Sitting in a $3000 insulated shack on an overmanaged preserve waiting for a huge buck with a cutesy name that has had more pictures taken of him than Kim Kardashian doesn't do anything for me. Give me a hard hunted average 8 slipping up to a loaded red oak flat gets me cranking.

If you try to control your bucks breeding habits, he might just move on somewhere else, I would.

A person is either woefully socially unaware, or otherwise lying to protect their own interest, if they say they don't recognize this new modern day movement to (my words) return to some arbitrary "grass roots, moral high ground" of hunting. There is an obvious attempt on all avenues of social media to "fight back" against all of us mean trophy hunters who need to mind our business about what other people kill (incidentally this is the most common complaint I see against the current DCNR administration). If you don't know that or believe that, just get on ANY of the umpteen "Alabama Deer Hunters" pages on Facebook, they are inundated by post after post after post after post after post (continue X1000) with a picture of an eighty pound milk mouth 4 point, and the caption is ALWAYS "got meat for the freezer". Seriously?...why didn't you post photos of the Publix bags? You really wanted to humble brag about "meat in the freezer"?

Now this wouldn't be anything worth commenting on, right? I mean, we're all grown men who have seen and/or killed ten hundred bazillion deer. There's nothing particularly impressive about a tiny 4 point, nothing particularly accomplished about killing the dumbest deer in the woods, just basically nothing that should even raise the eyebrow of any breathing human living in Alabama where we can see deer like standing beside every road every day. I mean, anybody who hunts in Alabama, even those who hunt sparingly on poor land, have likely seen lots of deer like that. See where I'm going with this?? So why then will that picture get HUNDREDS of comments, almost all of which say something to the effect of "don't let people shame you about what you kill", and usually NOBODY has commented shaming them about it. Many of these posts have a sarcastic tone of voice, as if they're trying to rub it in the face of any who wouldn't like it. Lots of them just flat out say it. Yet folks like me who prefer to hunt larger racks are the 'bad" guys?? I've NEVER once commented on someone's post that they shouldn't have killed it. I probably thought it, but I wouldn't say it. Every once in a while there's some 80 year old fella standing there with a pump rifle and old green tattered coveralls....when HE says he killed some meat, it makes sense. But when the young dude with his hipster beard has a spike on the tailgate of his new Tundra, with a SxS on a trailer, wearing $800 of Sitka clothes says it, he's just being a peckerhead trying to join in the new wave of social justice warrioring. It's meant to be offensive, and I take offense.

The implication is that "pure and good" hunting is only about eating venison. Sheesh, this ain't 1785 there, Davy Crockett....put ya musket down, ya family ain't gonna starve. I couldn't possibly care LESS about venison, so is my hunting not equally valid to the meat hunter's view of hunting? It's just a personal schtick of mine, probably derailing the original post, but I associate the two topics as the same as having the same hidden meaning.

Even though I call myself a "rack only hunter", I thoroughly agree with this. It's just schmucky and not at all similar to how I hunt.

Wow. Im lost. Here is the opposite side of the argument I guess.

How does someone overanalyse or OVER manage their Preserve?

How can it be a PRESERVE if it is free range and not high fenced? Its not. It someones managed land, where they hunt it the way THEY want..not the way you want.

How do they OVER MANAGE? They take their stewardship of the land too seriously? Put in too many nice food plots? Spend too much time improving their habitat? They have Too many big bucks walking around? They need to start shooting more young bucks so youll be happy?

YOU dont hunt there...lol. THEY DO! Jeez!

How do they OVER analyse?They spend too much time trying to figure out their land? Run too many cameras for YOUR liking?

Heck, I think its smart to try to understand as much as possible about your land and how deer use it.

Again, someone mad at what another hunter does. Freaking crazy.

Hunt the way YOU want and let others hunt the way THEY want. Why would it possibly bother you what they do? and if it does..why the heck are you watching their show?

Some people are just a mess over deer hunting. Very strange to me.

I like how odo puts big spaces in his posts..it makes it easier to read for me.

Two takeaways from spot reading this thread:

1) BrentM must be onto something to get this many responses so quickly

2) I had forgotten how many grumpy old men reside on aldeer.😁

... Merry Christmas everybody!

Crazy stuff man. Those guys building artificial pinch points and supplemental feeding and baiting?? Spending hundreds of thousands of $ on property just to grow a huge buck named King Kong or some stupid crap. They put themselves on tv so they are open to criticism. Not my thing. I prefer hunting wild deer on public land. Pretty good at it too, a lot of fun killing big bucks where others dump their couches and target shoot. My bucks cost me a tank of gas and the price of a bullet! Ha Ha Wow!

I would say if he is a 2 year old spike he is more than likely a genetically inferior buck to the 2 year old basket racked 6,7,8,9,10 point. I say if you hunt in a place with a lot of deer and you want to shoot him to allow the more superior bucks to have more groceries, take him out. Or if you have a tag to burn and just tired of seeing his ugly mug take him out. If you want to call him a cull in that context I would say you would be correct.

If you think shooting him is going to improve the genetics on your property and you call him a cull in that regard well you are just wrong.

I don't care what people shoot where they hunt. Where I hunt I don't really care if you shoot a 3 year old 3 point or a 2 year old with 14 inch spikes. What I don't want you to shoot is a 90"-100" 2 year old or 115"-120" 3 year old.

Just knew this thread would go sideways in a hurry...

I name all of my deer the same - bullet test dummy. 😀

Shoot what you want but your line of thinking here is completely wrong. You can’t judge a 2yo for “genetics”. It’s absolutely impossible

The doe's genetics have as much to do with the offspring as the buck. An average buck can breed a genetically superior doe whose dad was a massive buck and have impressive offspring.

Do yall ever get out in the woods?

Shoot what makes you happy, but I have a problem with it in two situations, and two situations only, The first is when someone shoots an obviously young buck and decides they need to justify it by designating it as a cull claiming they are going to change the genetics of the herd. If you designate it a cull because you don't think the rack will ever be desirable and all it will do is eat food that could go to another deer, that is fine. Plus, it will probably taste pretty good. The second situation is when someone shoots a young buck and then complains that they never see any "good" deer. Keep shooting the young ones and you probably won't ever see any big, old ones so don't complain.

Don’t forget the infamous....”neighbors shoot everything anyway, if I didn’t shoot him they would have.”

Hey, theres absolutely nothing wrong with culling the neighbors deer.

Bingo , most people calling a deer “cull” is to justify it in other people’s eyes . Everyone knows you can’t be “the” great white hunter if you don’t shoot all 150” ers. I was for years dead against shooting any does on my property and regularly shot a spike or 3 point each year to eat . I wanted to know where every doe or doe group was feeding every day and I wanted them to be good and calm come January 1. It has worked for this long so I think I’ll just stick with it .
Shot a 5 y.o. 5 point last year , just bc he bullied the younger bucks and I had tricked a 5 year old deer and was tickled to death with him.
I consider him a trophy .

I believe in culls and have the pics to prove it (unlike the Alabama panther believers😂). All of these are 4 plus yr old deer I have history with. Some as old as 6 and maybe older. For the record I don’t believe in 2 yr old culls and I also don’t believe the vast majority of Alabama bucks will ever break 130” regardless of age.

At least 6 yr old, easy to identify by the split ear.

So your saying a 2 year old spike has the same same odds as a 2 year old 10 point, to be a 140" 5 year old.

I would guess the average for 5 year old bucks in AL would be somewhere around 115"