Bowfanatic - Your question on which doe to take is a good one. Someone posted that if offered the opprutunity of 2 does coming in together, a young one, and a mature one, Which to shoot??? They answered the question with "both if possible". This quote may have come off the QDMA website, I do not recall.

The point would be that in 90% of the country, there are too many does, period - and generally to many deer period in over 50% of the country. True management will falter, unless the population is brought back to carrying capacity of the land, and the doe/buck ratio is near equal. Then the question of which doe to shoot becomes more valid. In the balanced population model, the answer is the older does. Why? because a young herd, is more dynamic. By this I mean that by "turning over" the doe herd more often, bad genes are removed with the older does. With a decent population of mature bucks (1 for 5-10 does), The dominant buck's genes are ensured. Younger does are more likely to have "dominant" buck genes than older does, especially in a relatively new management situation (10 yrs or less of a balanced herd). Older does, still may carry a significant % of "bad genes" from the previous management practices - and since 50% of the genome are from the doe, it makes sense to cull out older does.

At this point in the conversation, someone always says "but older does raise their young more successfully than younger ones".....And this is exactly the point. If an older doe with a higher likelyhood of "bad genes" is passed up, you can be sure that the "genetic" equation will take longer to play out.

I digressed a bit - DBL-LUNG - The point of the post was culling spikes - and you got some good answers already. But you may have already answered your own question, and not realized it. You stated that the closest food plots are over 1 mile from your land. This COULD indicate that the land in general cannot support the number of deer you have. In this case, antler development, and body weight (especially in 1-1/2yr old deer) are the first to suffer. There is some excellent research on the subject - (look up "Cusino Deer&quot.

Also, While it is true that you can curtail buck dispersal by shooting does, you can not eliminate it. AND in your situation with a park (likely overbrowsed, and somewhat mature) you CANNOT STOP dispersion of 1-1/2 yr old bucks ON TO your property. SO even with excellent food plots, and a balanced deer herd on your property, A very high percentage of yearling bucks you observe on your land during hunting season have come from 2-10 miles away (average dispersion) and will LIKLEY be spikes, or small racked bucks. Their first rack, is a matter of their circumstance, and EXTREMELY unlikey to have anything to do with their genetics. Culling them at their 1st rack, will only hurt your herd.

Now if you had 10,000 acres things would be different, but you do not.

Sorry to ramble - I could add more - but hopefully you get my point.