Love the article QDMA (love em or hate em doesn't matter). Great article on the topic of bucks with abnormal racks, specifically the ones with one normal growing side and the other stunted or spiked. Spiked On One Side I for one think it gets old people stating they are culling for genetics...articles like this need passed around more amongst us hunters...one of the highest bucks on my hit-list is a buck like this, 5 1/2 years+ old and a freaking trophy in my book!
I've got a 7.5 year old 7 pointer on my list. His score doesn't matter one bit, and I don't consider him a cull. I think the term "cull" is just used as an excuse to shoot a buck when a monster doesn't show up.
BTW Ty, that's a great article and something that I felt the same way about for quite some time. Now it will just take some convincing on my part to get the people that I hunt with to understand this.
Good article. We like the "big 6" even though he is not a 6. The date is wrong on last years rut pic.
I honestly think he is 4 1/2. Not much of a rack, but a cool deer. He knocked a G3 off on his left side already this year.
Dude is solid like a tank body wise...be interesting to see his jawbone aged if or when you guys nail him to the ground.
Funny you say that. I was gonna be researching were to send off my first jaw bone. Any ideas on the best place? I have the jaw bone from the one on the 13th.
Meh...the article isn't impressing me that much. I agree with it on a lot of points but by stating that genetics has "nothing" to do with it seems like a hell of a stretch to me. The problem is if he's going to make the claim that genetics has nothing to do with abnormal antlers then why do some deer have the ability to grow 200+" of antler while most are lucky to produce 150"? You see where I'm going? I feel like ruling out genetics, as it seems this author is doing or at very least insinuating, is just too convenient to hold true acrtoss the board. I hold with my opinion that I'll take mature deer with poor racks as management deer (not culls), according to my deer numbers and herd needs both number and ratio wise. Which I consider as both QDMA and TDM intigration.... Anything under 3.5 is off limits here on my property, period.
How do you know a deer has bad genetics though? What if he was just malnourished for the year? I agree that "cull" is just an excuse word. There are to many variables in nature to start controlling a wild population. If you want giant bucks...just let them get old.
Some people talk too much in extremes in both directions. I don't cull. I shoot what I want, when I want. I have also seen people shoot young bucks, then claim them as culls because they weren't as big as they had hoped. That said, my buddy has a continuous 2000 acre tract to himself in Alabama. He works hand in hand with the owners surrounding him to where they have 8000 acres continuous that is managed alike. I agree waiting for older bucks is the biggest factor, but whacking the small racked 3-4 yo definitely doesn't hurt. Sure he has spread genetics some already, but he won't anymore. If its a nice 8-10 3yo it walks. Old tanks or big racks are shot regardless as that is the goal. But by also taking every funky racked middle aged deer they see over the past close to 10 years now, they have been seeing less and less of them. I don't think that's a coincidence.
Very unique situation. If you had total heard control like that it would be different (and I would try to cull then too). Does also contribute 50% of the genetics as well...and its next to impossible to identify which doe is which.
Here are the last 3 bucks I have killed freaks all from the same stand! I am not sure they would have been much better than half racks!! I would think all from same genes?
I think those deer are young...theyd be walking on my land with racks like that....im not claiming I kill giants all the time or wouldnt shoot 100 inch deer if its the one I wanted... but I have seen some crazy cool racks like that on older deer with some serious mass....racks worth waiting for imo.....to each their own but im not trying to beat mother nature im trying to enjoy it so I dont mind seeing things like that walking around Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
The problem here in jersey is once 6 day fire arm season comes in 3" spikes and up get slaughtered there are so many clubs that put on deer drives around us that we cannot be choosy on the deer we harvest! I wish we could! Of course the zone we are in is 45 and is the only one that does not have the 3 on one side rule! So everyone hunts here to kill spikes! I try really hard to make sure I abide by a personal rule of 3 on one side but waiting for a mature 4 year old buck is very tough! The state has not helped our deer management zone at all!!
For sure. Another one of the biggest problems with culling is bag limits. Many states are one maybe two buck states. Why waste that on a buck smaller than you want? I have buddies in Kentucky send me pics all the time of a 2-3 yo seven pointer and say decided to take this cull out of the herd yesterday. Okay cool, now your season is over and you shot a deer smaller than your standards ( otherwise why would you be lying about the reason for shooting it lol).
I used these guys last year. It takes about 8-10 months to get back but I liked them.-----> Preparing & Shipping Whitetail Deer Aging - Cementum annuli Forensic Aging by Wildlife Analytical Laboratories We were surprised on the ages of the bucks we harvested. One which we thought was 5 turned out to be 6 after cementum aging. The other we thought was 3 turned out to be 4. We plan on continuing to use these guys as it has really opened our eyes to the aging of deer on our properties.
Thats Ohio as well. In my zone i can take one buck and three does. Me and my hunting party dabbled with letting 2.5 year old's go for a number of years, and almost 100% of the time somebody else took them or they "disappeared". Im still waiting for a few to show up on cam as mature 4-5 year old bucks. The thing that changed it all for us was the fact that we would watch 7-8 bucks all summer/fall, and the next spring we would get a new batch of 7/8 bucks with none of the ones from the previous year showing up. Where would they go? A few of the older bucks got smarter im sure, but we figure most of the 2.5-3.5 year old's simply got taken during gun season. We hunt to hunt now.
