If you can tell a buck has deformed antlers, 3 on one side and 1 or 2 on the other, do you take him out?

My goal is to kill mature bucks. I killed a 3 year old 5 point this year because I don’t see him having potential. I’ve let many 3 year old deer walk over the years that had more potential. I also let a 1 year old 4 point (3 on left, 1 on right) walk because I don’t believe you can judge potential at this young of an age.

I also don’t think you can change genetics through “culling” but you can let the deer with more potential have the resource to develop into their potential by shooting deer with less potential.

not unless I know he's old, and by that, I mean 4.5 or older (older preferably). The conventional wisdom is that there is no way to tell what a buck's antlers will do from year to year, AND, even more importantly, a buck is only HALF, the equation. How are you going to "cull" does that produce only subpar antlers. Good luck figuring that one out. Thus, we kill only mature deer.

I have a 3 year old this year with 4 on one side and one long beam on the other that goes straight out. I'm not gonna kill him just to see if it corrects itself next year. If he's s mess again I'll pop him first chance I get next year.

I’ve seen many of them grow out of injury or spike on one side and turn into dang good deer.

Deformed antlers can be caused by a number of factors most of which have nothing to do with genetics. Most people think a cull buck is a deer that has a normal rack on one side and maybe a spike or not matching other side. An injury to any part of a deers body can cause rack deformity. Breaking a leg, foot, wound, or fighting injury can affect the next seasons growth. Im going out on a limb with what we have witnessed but most of our one horn deer have a damaged pedicle from the shedding of the previous seasons horns. The two biggest deer on our farm experienced this at one point in their life. One of them had a perfect 4 point side last season and a short main beam with like 3 brow tines. This year at 4 he still has his perfect 4x side and now a third main beam that splits and 3 other points. I have no doubt he damaged his horns in velvet the year prior. Point is we had two guests that texted us can we shoot this cull buck the year before. They don't always fix themselves but they aren't by definition a cull. They don't have inferior genetics. Not to mention you can't kill enough deer to change the genetics of a property. So my two cents is if he isn't a mature deer allow him to try and fix it or kill him if it makes you happy.

The part about does is a valuable consideration. In many ways, taking your best(read most impressive racks) bucks is counter-productive over time.
I base this on the history of the European red stag in the UK. If you’ve ever gazed upon some of the racks hanging in castles etc that are now hundreds of years old compared with what is taken today, it’s like a comparison of elk vs mule deer. They are impressive now but wow did they make for amazing racks back then. But the king and his lords had exclusive legal rights to the deer and they shot the finest. Over time they eliminated those bloodlines and the less desirables proliferated.

If I think they are 5+ years old.

What about a 3.5 + that’s still a spike on both sides? Spikes that look like a elk spike.

the problem with your thinking is that you do not know what that buck may or may not of had happen to him. I know of a high fence buck that was one of four fawns born by one doe, same night. He weighed 2 lbs at birth, very low. Two of his womb siblings died within hours. At 1 year he had uneven 4" spikes. At four he had 17 points and scored in 180s. Unless you have intimate knowledge of a bucks life you cannot make an informed decision on culling.

a young deer with a skeletal injury will usually grow out it in 2-4 years.

[quote=Wapiti55]What about a 3.5 + that’s still a spike on both sides? Spikes that look like a elk spike. [/quote

Shoot him. But to have the affect you want you need to kill the Doe too. She has as much or more to do with the horns as he does. So shoot him if you want because you're right he isn't going to amount to anything and is consuming resources beneficial to other animals. The genetics have not been removed though. Boy they look funny with massive main beams and no points though.

I'd probably shoot him. In 60 years of hunting deer I have NEVER seen a 3 year old spike and have only seen ONE two year old spike. Out of thousands of deer I have seen

I’m not under the impression that I change the genetics of the herd. He’s probably already passed his genes on. I’ve let him walk twice now, mostly because I was waiting for a shooter and had plenty of daylight left.

Cull is usually an excuse to just shoot something and one man's cull is another man's trophy.

We view those deer that are 4+ with deformed antlers, spike on one side, etc that we have seen with these malformations for more than 1 year as culls (excuses to shoot, whatever you want to call it) for kids, guests, etc. We pass on several nice 3.5-4.5 year olds every year and never see them again - it’s nice to have identifiable target deer that you can let someone pull the trigger on if they want.

Sure, we can call them cull bucks. Sounds a little better than "I just clobbered a spike".

If i like it, i kill it. Theys a good sized forkhorn running around up here that looks like a stick of summer sausage every time i see him. Hes living on borrowed time.

one just has to accept hat when you let nice 3-4 year old bucks walk you will never see a lot of them again, depending on size of property, pressure, neighbors, whatever. Just a fact of hunting big old deer.