Culling bucks for trophy mgt--what do you look for?

[spring]

When trying to improve the herd quality on your place, what all do you consider a cull buck? For me that's usually an 8-pointer that is 4 or older or a buck that appears to have lousy genes, such as highly irregular on one side and normal on the other. Even then, I look hard to try to determine if it’s genetic or some sort of injury that caused the weird rack on an otherwise quality buck.
How about you? What do you consider a deer that you don't want to breed? Do you feel a 3-year old 8 will always be an 8 and should be taken as well?
Also, are you more likely to take out those 8-pointers before rut?

 

[XTREME HUNTER]

There was a good article in the QDMA magazine last month (might have been 2 months ago) you should try to aquire. They had lots of examples and pictures going over what you are talking about.

 

[trailhunter]

Culling is not a good idea in free roaming deer

Culling is not a good idea in free roaming deer. Dispersal and genetic diversity make it nearly impossible.

I've got too many pictures of spikes & messed up rack deer turning into eights & then tens or more. This is from running 17 trail cameras nearly year round on several thousand acres of private land. Most folks who practice culling simply use it as an excuse to shoot something or to take an immature eight and later complain that they never see any big deer.

Go by body size/age like you said, not the bone.

Keep an eye out for ear notches as one of the best ways to track bucks.

If you still don't believe me, then:

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=29607


th

 

[MoeBirds]

We have an over abundant herd of piebalds on our property and we generally encourage guests to shoot them when given the opportunity. We view them as undesireable for breedeing purposes. The does are shot on-site in early season. We recently took out two bucks which showed unusually odd racks at age three and a half, and where taken becuse of the lack of mass assosiated with the non-typical nature of racks in their category. A young buck, one with a severe club-foot, was also taken by one of the guides.

As far as culling 8-points at a certain age class, some of our nicer scoring bucks are thick-massed 8's in the high
140's and are considered trophy quality for GA.

We also have a large population of gnarly racked non-typicals and these are where some of the higher scores come from on the property, so it's difficult to gage what an odd rack is and what it could be with a little boost in nutrition and age.

 

[DYI hunting]

QDMA's article xtreme hunter mentioned hits on some good points about culling based on antlers. I learned a lot from the article.

If your club culls out smaller deer, you really need to read it.

 

[spring]

My rational for taking older 8-pointers is that it's rare that an 8 will one day be a 10 or 12, and since we know that a mature 8 will try to run off younger bucks during the rut, many of which might be 10 or 12 pointers, I'd rather take the 8's and improve the chances of that special buck spreading his genes.
As for whether or not culling makes sense on free-roaming deer, I don't think we can say that with certainty. It's a widely used herd management technique in many areas, and on my place in particular, I think it could be effective. Much of the area around my farm is open row-crop land. I have the bulk of the cover in the immediate area and seem to have a fair amount of the deer spending time on my place. I’m thinking culling might work, though have not practiced it as much as some have advised me.

 

[trailhunter]

My rational for taking older 8-pointers is that it's rare that an 8 will one day be a 10 or 12, and since we know that a mature 8 will try to run off younger bucks during the rut, many of which might be 10 or 12 pointers, I'd rather take the 8's and improve the chances of that special buck spreading his genes.
As for whether or not culling makes sense on free-roaming deer, I don't think we can say that with certainty. It's a widely used herd management technique in many areas, and on my place in particular, I think it could be effective. Much of the area around my farm is open row-crop land. I have the bulk of the cover in the immediate area and seem to have a fair amount of the deer spending time on my place. I’m thinking culling might work, though have not practiced it as much as some have advised me.

I agree that the older bucks, 8's or anything else should be taken.

I would completely disagree with the statement that its rare for 8's to turn into 10's or 12's.

I'm telling you, you would be suprised what just not shooting deer will accomplish on your property in South GA. As to the free roaming deer issue, their is no way you can prevent dispersal to or from your property absent a high fence, and young deer do move from the location they were born.

th

 

[Buford_Dawg]

I am no expert

but I have seen TONS of 1.5 year old 6 and 8 pointers that were SUPPOSEDLY shot as CULL deer. Give these bucks 2-3 more years of life and wonder what they would be. Maybe as big as that Dodge county deer posted here yesterday.

I think too many hunters use the word CULL as a excuse to shoot anything to get around their club rules.

 

[hootinga]

to me cull deer are culls till there 3 or 4 years old. one reason i would cull a deer is b/c of weird rack like some one on here said about beenin normal on one side and messed up on the other side ( once his mature ) number two reason would be if is a big mature 4 or 6 point. ( just like they do in tx shoot the 6 and 8 point and leave the 10s and 12 to romp around and do the breddin )

 

[Twenty five ought six]

I think too many hunters use the word CULL as a excuse to shoot anything to get around their club rules.
Reply With Quote

Exactly. As soon as you start "culling" deer, everyone is an expert.

We tried that, and it was "look out spikes". We heard time and time "I shot that spike because he wasn't never going to be a good rack", or "he had a fun looking rack". Lord help the poor deer that happen to have more points on one side than the other.

Even a severely deformed antler may be the result of injury while in velvet and have nothing at all to do with genetics.

My opinion, based on years of experience, is that culling is a good idea is a highly controlled environment like they have in England, Germany or New Zealand, but good luck trying to do it on a systematic basis in our environment.

Even on the T.V. shows that always feature having the featured hunter shoot a "management buck", meaning a cull, it's pretty clear that that is a euphemism for "let's shoot what comes along"

The folks over here at the U of GA say that you can't effectively cull unless:

(a) you have a fence, so you can control genes and population, or

(b) you have approx. 3000 contiguous acres with some natural barriers that effectively control the resident population.

 

[Huntervationist]

As many stated above, many a young buck have seen in a bed of truck shot under the guise of a "cull". Culling 8's even at 5.5 years is a loss to me. I love the beauty and symatry of a large, proud 8. needless to say my fovorite trophy isnt a 10, 12, or some streriod enriched 64 point, but a straight 8 with 9" brow tines.
just my.02

 

[BOWHUNTER!]

Culling is not a good idea in free roaming deer. Dispersal and genetic diversity make it nearly impossible.

I've got too many pictures of spikes & messed up rack deer turning into eights & then tens or more. This is from running 17 trail cameras nearly year round on several thousand acres of private land. Most folks who practice culling simply use it as an excuse to shoot something or to take an immature eight and later complain that they never see any big deer.

Go by body size/age like you said, not the bone.

Keep an eye out for ear notches as one of the best ways to track bucks.

If you still don't believe me, then:

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=29607


th

I agree I shot an eleven pointer last thursaday that was a 8 pointer at 2 1/2. In some eyes, he would have been a cull buck then because he was spindly and not real impressive. He grew up.