Culling Yearling Bucks
 

Do you believe that culling a yearling (insert whatever you deem as bad genetics here [fork horn for example]) buck will limit the bad gene pool in your local deer herd?

I'm of the opinion that culling a (insert whatever you want for bad genetics here) will not have a significant impact. While it's true that only 20% of the bucks in an area are top end performers, I don't believe the first set of antlers is a good predictor of future sets.

This is a long standing debate a friend and I have. He believes you should cull any yearling buck with 4 or less points.

Your thoughts?

There is absolutely no way to know a deers potential at a yr old. Come on now. It's like saying is a grade schooler gonna be a pro football player. Gotta let em grow!!!!!!!

Bucks will disperse then, too. Move off to find their own territory. The following year, you may have a different set of 2.5 year olds than the 1.5s you have now. Plus, there's a lot of bucks moving back and forth during the rut.

Unless, you have a high fence, you don't know what deer will stick around and what new deer may move in.

Plus, 1.5 is way too young to tell. Even 2.5yo. I think you need to wait until 3.5 to get a sense of it. Sometimes bucks will have big antler jumps at 4.5 or 5.5 even.

I think culling bucks is stupid and it's degrading to the game animal.

always wondered if you cull a bucl dont you use your buck tag? Like in ky we only have one antlered tag so if I culled one then I couldnt shoot anymore that year

Yes it cost you a tag, at least in your state and mine

Your buddy has no clue what he is talking about.

Yeah, I can't figure out how he thinks that would be a good idea. IMO that's one of the worst things that you can do, if you wanna harvest nice mature bucks. At that age, they are still 2 years away from even being able to get an idea of what they might be later on. Even then, they may have a drastic jump in antler growth from one year to the next, which has already been said. I can understand shooting a buck with bad genetics or one that has been injured. Maybe your friend will change his mind about this, I don't think that he will find many that will agree with him.

Bucks get 1/2 their genes from the doe. It is all but impossible to have any effect on a free ranging herd's genetic's by "culling" a deer of any age.