Originally Posted by
rockport
I don't see how taking a strong healthy buck out of the herd before or just into his prime can be great for a herd.
When I sit out there for hours watching these animals the young bucks that temp me are the strong healthy ones and I get the impression that they are very important to the herd.
I mean sure if you go out and shoot a good healthy 2.5 year old they will be fine. There are probably more around but if you have 5 people out there hunting a piece of property and 3 of you kill off good healthy bucks before their prime that certainly can't help the herd. Start doing that every year and that old big boy dies off then what? Who is doing the breeding then?
BTW I don't look down on the way you are doing it. Its all about you enjoying your experience and things are probably very different where you and I hunt.
That's probably the best reason I have ever heard for taking older bucks. The issue I have had with the line of thinking is that all you really need for a "healthy" herd are males, females, and good habitat. Fact of the matter is that does are getting bred by all manner of age classes of bucks. If you believe that only 4 1/2 or older bucks are doing all the breeding you would be mistaken.
I know this is where someone will come in and bring up doe/buck ratio. The ONLY way to know with 100% certainty that you have the doe/buck ratio that you are looking for is to high fence the place. Even then if you are taking only older bucks it is giving your younger bucks more opportunities. The age class of those younger bucks can be anywhere from 1.5 years of age and up.
Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not trying to advocate that we start making younger bucks a priority. Heck I would let small bucks go myself. I just have never liked the attitude you get from some folks if you show them a picture of your 110 class 3.5 year old buck. We all enjoy hunting and I have been a "to each his own" kind of guy with most forms of hunting. We get attacked enough to fight amongst ourselves about the age of deer we take.