Please dont take this the wrong way and I am certainly not trying to be condescending or rude but one of two things must be true. Either you dont know what you're looking at when aging the deer you see, or you must not be in the woods observing deer very often.

Are you kidding?

Every property in every county of this state has deer that at maturity have no more than 4-6 points. You’ve never seen a big mature buck with forks and no brows? This is very common. Not something unusual.

I scored a 145” 6 once. It had a 20” inside spread, 27” and 28” beams, 14” G2s, 6” brows and a tad over 30” of mass. It was an absolute beast.

Not kidding - except for genetic 6s.
I realize there are genetic 6s out there that will never be anything but a 6.
99% of them will never even score 80 or 90.

******

Since you agree that high grading is a fact, what biological affect do you think low grading the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of bucks would do?
Imo at a minimum that would be a better way to manage limited resources - food, cover, habitat, breeding rights, etc.

The other problem with culling what is perceived to be an inferior buck to remove the genetics is that the doe is just as important in the equation if not more so. So for it to make a difference the doe needs to go as well. Thats why culling has never made since to me. Also I can't tell you how many deer I have seen people say is a cull buck that was just a deer that was injured the year before or just damaged his pedicle.

I agree that it doesn't happen very often and sure deer die of natural causes all the time but one of the factors you mentioned can be controlled. The bullet! Sure taxidermists can give a lot of insight into what's being killed, but not what's still out there. Also the people killing and seeing 130s regularly aren't taking them to the taxidermist all that often. The thing being discussed is potential and that's everywhere in this state. Now realizing that potential can be expensive, hard, and time consuming. To reach that goal pulling the trigger has to become not important.

So you think there are a lot of 130” + bucks killed each year that just get sawed off and thrown out in the shed. Years ago maybe but today I doubt it not saying it never happens just that it would be rare.

Where's Timber?

You can bet your ass in my little area of the state if nobody killed a buck less then 5 or 6 years old for a few years hell even 4 year olds folks would be shocked at the results. Being that will never happen this we ain't got no big deer crap will continue. I know some got it better then others base on several factors but I bet very few of the folks complaining about inches of antler would pass a high scoring 3 year old in there club or lease. They will find excuses why they killed him bs like the neighbors would have, other members or kids first deer whatever but it all contributes to a dead buck that had potential. This topic comes up every year during deer season and the answer is at your local deer processor because the vast majority like 99% of bucks in that cooler are 3 or less. Age Age Age without it you ain't gonna have shucks low grade high grade cull all that BS is just an excuse to kill a deer. If you want to have, see and kill more higher scoring deer you have to sacrifice (don't kill any deer less then 4 or 5 period for any reason), work, spend money and think about this issue in May and June not January. Now only a small number of guys on here have the ability to do any or all of that because they are in a club or have a small place and so on. For those guys in that situation just enjoy what you got and try to grow as a hunter and gradually kill older class bucks. This is still a free country as of today but that is subject to change so you can kill whatever you want and enjoy it. Just understand it starts and ends with age and without it everything else is a waste of time if you want to see the endangered 130.

I know several people that passed up 120-130 3-4 year old bucks this year. Me being one on two different occasions and seen the pics and videos of the others. It does happen not consistently but it does.