Originally Posted By: truedouble
Originally Posted By: tiger87
In my opinion culling bucks is absolutely beneficial for your property but not for the reason most of you are debating. No matter how many acres you own, unless its high fenced, a high percentage of the bucks on your property will have home ranges that extend beyond your property lines. Lets say hypothetically you own 300 acres. You put out a few cameras and find that you have three 3.5 yr old bucks spending most of their time on your property. Well the buck with largest antlers is not necessarily the dominant buck of the three. In this scenario the buck with the least desirable rack may very well be the dominant buck when they turn 4.5 the next year and wont tolerate the presence of the other two bucks. By shooting the buck with the smallest rack you increase the odds of keeping the larger racked bucks on your property by reducing the competition for territory among their age class. It doesnt guarantee they will stay on your property but it helps. Think about it how many people have gotten pictures of 2 or 3 year old bucks some with potential and some not so much. a couple of years down the line you get a picture of the one of the "not so much" bucks and the bucks that had potential are never seen again. All bucks that you let reach maturity are going to establish a territory and defend it, why let scraggly poor racked bucks set up shop on your property and potentially run larger racked 3.5 year olds away. Thats why you cull not because you think you can manipulate the gene pool of the entire alabama whitetail population by shooting a buck with short brow tines.


Hmmm, interesting theory, but way too many unknowns. How do you know which buck is dominant? What if the buck with the biggest horns is 3.5 and is also the dominant buck? What if the 3.5 year old with 110" horns isn't the dominant buck and what if he could put on another 20" from 3 to 4 making him a 130"? If you let him walk you might then have a 150" 4.5 and a 130" 4.5 year old. The only way to consistently kill good bucks is to hunt property that has a good number of good bucks. Mature deer are too hard to kill to put all your eggs in one basket by eliminating as many "inferior" 3.5 year olds as possible. I'd rather take my chances and likely hold a higher number of mature deer than try to manipulate middle age bucks with the intent of only holding mature bucks with the best genetics. I only see that working in a fenced area. All that being said, the original post was in regards to a 2.5 year old and IMO 99% of 2 year olds should walk.



Not sure you understood what I was saying. If your working in a high fenced area then dominant bucks cant run other bucks off your property so my theory doesn't matter. In Alabama you are going to see bucks that are 3+ yrs old that you know will never be high scoring bucks. I say cull those bucks out not because of any genetic traits they may pass down but because they will inevitably run off other bucks that could have the potential to grow larger racks. Everytime you harvest a mature buck a void is left that will eventually be filled by another buck. So in essence why would you allow a buck to occupy territory on your property if he is not of the caliber that you consider a trophy? I do agree that culling should only be done on bucks at least three years of age and even then only the bucks that your fairly certain dont have the potential they need. Of course you must first be certain that you have given them the nutritional foundation needed to fully express their genetic potential.