Bucks don't reach maturity until at least 4 1/2 years.
If your wish was for a more balanced herd by age why would you shoot such an immature animal?
Serious question not meant to be cutting or sarcarstic.
Trying to understand why only a little older is good enough
SteveB - I Box quoted ya.
That's actually a good point, until you examine the obvious. If EVERYONE (not likely - but lets go with it) targeted 2.5 years or older for bucks- that means that INSTEAD of 80% of bucks taken each year being 1.5 years old - they would ALL be 2.5 years or older!
As a resulta HIGHER PERCENTAGE would live to 3.5 and again aHIGHER PERCENTAGE would live to 4.5 years or older. And most importantly - almost ALL the breeding would be done by the animals in the older age classes. Thats what its all about (QDM that is).
Its an easy sell to guys that want to harvest a deer with larger antlers - because - guess what........... there will be more of them, because more male deer will get to live AT LEAST one more year.
FH