That's tough. All you can do is control what you do and hope for the best. I would still let him walk if I didn't want him.
Id want to let him walk and see what he turns into but you never know how you feel when you have him infront of you.
That is so true ATbuckhunter. And how the season is coming along. I'll plan on at least another year maybe two.
Hmmm...Must be genetics, got another one with deformity on the same side from same camera. Them together from last pull this morning.
Both look like younger deer. The two things I dislike hearing the most are culling and people blaming it on the neighbors. You may have crappy neighbors but if you let it go it will have at least a 50% chance of making it compared to a 0% chance if you take it. Also, culling is not an effective practice in a free range setting. Does give some of their genes too, it's not just the bucks.
Absolutely zero belief in culling.....also love how you then bring up the neighbors for not letting it walk. SHOOT WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY....PERIOD.
I'd shoot him but if you want to see what he could turn into look at my 2012 mount just type that in to the search and look for wiBOWhunter he's a 12 pointer with a 5 point claw .and he's 4.5 maybe 5.
You are not alone. I have the same situation. As long as it is legal, people are in their right but a camp beside me would kill nubbins, spikes, and 1-2 year old 4 points. Then clean them n the woods so they wouldn't get caught. Finally caught up with them though because the landowner found out from neighbors on the other side from me and the lease got pulled.
Lot's of great posts here. I think you should shoot what you like because it meets your standards. Hopefully, everyone here is above shooting game just to keep someone else from shooting it first. If someone else does get It first... they just get it first... life goes on.
I still say I'll let him walk. I want to get a nice 8 with my bow and taking them before they have a chance to reach that potential is greatly reduced if not eliminating that opportunity. If its a choice of meat in the freezer i'll wait on a doe. If the neighbor is happy and needs the meat, i wish him luck. I don't judge anyone on what they kill. There are folks around me though that don't eat the meat, just enjoy the kill, get upset if that don't happen and then go to drastic means like baiting, dogging or trespassing to get a KILL. Found caucasus with the heads cut off along with the back straps and the left left to rot. IMO these hunters have no respect for the animal or the privilege we have to hunt As we do.As for the difference in what I call culling and the neighbor shooting everything, culling IMO, would be taking an animal out if bad genetics were so obvious it needed out of the breeding cycle or an animal was injured. I'll rephrase the question; IYO, is this just bad genetics or would an injury cause this. Had this property for 35 years and have never seen anything like this before.
No way to know for sure but my feeling is it's genetics. It's really up to an individual to determine if that's a bad trait or not. Personally I love the gnarly racks with unique character vs a straight typical but that's just me. The term "Culling" means a lot of different things to different people. The type of thought process that used to be referred to as culling that really got everyone's panties in a twist was killing young bucks that were spikes their first year. At one time the common thought was that first antler bucks were inferior if they were less than a fork. I agree that's stupid. My version of culling is simply taking out mature deer with characteristics I don't like. It's less of a pre-emptive planning centric approach than the old culling practice and more of a management based on herd grooming according to priority of desirable traits. Perhaps "Culling" is a poor label for what I practice. It's a long game based on subtle but consistent pressure. Maybe it is futile but it provides a lot of meat, lets us shoot more bucks and has made our local herds look good as I believe my posted pics can attest to. It's the only slight exception to our age restriction, We'll take bucks younger than 5 years old down to 3.5 if they have a sub par rack. Most get a pass even at that, MO point restriction plays a part in that on the MO properties..KS not so much. 3+ year olds with spikes or splits or crappy busted splits IMHO will never amount to anything wall worthy and might as well be harvested and eaten before a five year old 140".
Used to have deer in the area with flat type horns on the right side. Haven't seen that in a few years though. Maybe that worked itself out and now this freaky stuff going on. Oh well, it is free range so who knows where he'll be when the does come in.
I agree you never know how awesome that rack could be next year. Plus it could just be a small injury that caused that and next year his rack will be normal.
