ORIGINAL: BigJ12
Oh, I would love to give my thoughts on this!
To me when I hear (or read) the term "Cull Buck" it means one thing and one thing only.......Big antlered deer. Very rarely is there a situation where a mature deer NEEDS to be taken out of the herd. Just because he has an inferior rack does not mean he is unhealthy or unable to breed.
This is what I'm talking about when I say there are those who preach QDM yet kill young and mature "cull bucks" and then say they are doing it "for the health of the herd". This has nothing to do with herd health and everything to do with antlers period!
Infact, cullingbuckscan hurt the herds if enough are killed, yet there are those who will do this justsothe odds are better that the next generation of bucks will sport perfect trophy racks, how insane is that?
To me it's simple, if you are "culling" bucks then you are trying to GROW big perfect antlered deer and as far as I'm concerned have no regard for the actual health of the herd. Then to add insult to injury some justify this in the name of QDM.
If you want a perfect herd of "booners" just put up a high fence and start a deer farm......
That felt good!
Rant over.
Right on BigJ. There is a huge difference between QDM and QAM/TDM. I think exactly what you said is why QDM gets a bad rap. To me, there is no such thing as a cull buck. You can't control the genes by taking certain deer out, IMO. Its just like people, my brothers and I come in all different shapes and sizes, yet we all have the same genes. Same with deer.
Any mature deer is a trophy, regardless of the rack size or if it even has a rack.