Originally Posted by
deernutz
So I've been hearing and seeing it on TV every year for awhile now. So I'm going to ask you guys and gals your take on the matter.
Last night I was watching a hunting show on TV, and they shot a really nice thick antlered buck. They said he was 8.5 yrs old and needed to be taken out of the breeding herd, because his antlers had gone downhill the last few years.
So with that said it got me thinking about herd genetics. First off I'm by no means a wildlife biologist. Although I did go to college for it but joined the service before I could finish.
If a deer at 4.5 yrs old has a set of antlers that scores 180 in and the same deer at 8.5 yrs old has a rack that scores 135ish. It doesn't make any sense to me that he needs to be taken out of the herd because his rack went downhill and he's an old deer now. As far as I know and correct me if I'm wrong genetics don't change. You’re born with 'em and you die with the same genetics. So the comment he needed to be taken out of the gene pool is completely wrong. If he did breed a doe that yr which I'm sure he probably did. His off spring even though he was only sporting a 135ish rack at the time of his death have a good chance of sporting a 180 in rack at 4.5 yr old too. As long as the doe had good genes too.
Am I way off in this thinking?
Maybe this is the same logic of shoot all spikes. "Once a spike always a spike"
Its in the deers DNA not his horns, The deer can be 2yrs old or 8, if his DNA is good he'll pass it on.