Cull Buck or Give Him Time
 

I got pictures of this buck over the last two years. He's injured and obviously his rack is suffering. Is this permanent or will he eventually be a symetrical buck? Also, as big as his one side it, should he have more than 3 points? Here he is last year and now this year:

looks like this could be a permanent injury. I would try to take this deer and find out what is causing the problem. IMO

that is permanent,definetly wanna take him outta the heard and keep them bad genetics outt of the herd.

I'm not sure I would shoot this buck just for the sake of culling. His genetics are there regardless of the injury to his hind quarter. At 2 1/2, he has a pretty nice spread, although he doesn't have a lot of points. If he survived 2 more years, who knows what he might look like. He probably won't breed anyway given his injury, but he could get lucky. He certainly would have a difficult time in battle for does. Even though his injury has left one side kind of goofy, it could make for an interesting rack in the years to come.

dirt nap !

I was thinking he would be a cool buck for my 7 year old to call his first. He is eligible to participate in Pennsylvania's mentored youth hunt. I got him a Barnett RC-150 crossbow and have been working with him.

The buck is unique, for sure. If he wasn't injured, I'm picturing him as one of those giant 6-pointers you see occasionally. Maybe a couple sticker points when he gets old.

So, do you think he is 2.5? The first picture is his first set of antlets? I suspected that last year he was either 1.5 or 2.5 years old. If he's only 2.5, he could get much bigger in the next few years. I might be fun to watch his progress on the trail cam.

I think I'll let my boy take him if he gets a chance, but I will not target him. I won't really hunt this area myself until the late season anyway. We usually hunt upstate.

You're assuming that it's genetic, it could just as easily be the result of a head injury early on.

I think he was hit by a car last year. He also has some spots of road rash. They are completely healed over this year but no hair grew. Check out his bad leg, too.

Boom. Whack. Kick, kick, kick. MMMMHHHH, sausage.

If you do not want to shoot this deer yourself then let your boy or any other first time hunter take him. He does have a bad injury to his hindend and will no doubt not make it a few more years. Animals just like humans when we get a injury such as this get all stoved up and cant get around as we should, we have the help of doctors and the such, wild animals only have luck and responsible hunters to ease the pain of such a injury.
IMO you should do this deer and some lucky new hunter a favor and remove him from your herd.