Alltlk4

I am from NW Missouri and have many acres of farmland to hunt. Myself and friends have had a managment practice in place for the last 5 years at my land and have hunted this land for 11 years. Our limit is 130" with a bow and 140" with a rifle. We will take bucks that are mature but do not meet the requirments to help the overall genetics of the population. I can tell it is working, the last 2 years I have seen more large deer than ever before. So what is your limit? What do you let walk or what do you use as your measuring stick? Let me know where you are from cause we all know it makes a difference.

salukipv1

bow/gun same thing, personally I don't really understand the difference, a shooter is a shooter to me.

really looking for 10+ points
spread past the ears
ideally 3.5yo+

I'd say 140/150 at a minimum.

Sheridan

It does matter where you're from (where you hunt) when deciding when to shoot.

I'm from NJ but live now in SoCal and believe me there is a difference !!!

No matter where you're from or where you hunt however; when you first lay eyes on your quarry and you say to yourself, "that's a shooter"...........that's what I use as my measuring stick.

A big deer in one part of the country, is small in another part of the country.

TheCReW

It is different everywhere and for everyone, but where we hunt in Northern Saskatchewan, usually 160" is the mark to beat. 150"ers are relatively common for mature bucks. Of course, if you have a massive old buck who doesnt score up but is very cool, you take him. By the same token, if you have a 165" light horned young buck, you let him walk recognizing his potential. So many factors, but the number really isnt that important, IMO.

LL Outdoors

Score doesn't always matter to me. If it gets my knees nocking & heart racing or if it is a really neat/special hunt, I'll shoot regardless of score. The trophies aren't always in the numbers...
However; I do try to shoot mature deer and/or deer that will score well.

Whitetailmadness

I hunt National Forest so you better take what you can get regardless of size if you do as myself and eat all of it. I would prefer to take does but our laws only allow about 4 days out of the entire season to do so on National,but if it's not a designated doe day on the National and she crosses the boundry to the private land that ajoins it,anyone hunting the private land can shoot her any day at all.

nchawkeye

Bucks, seldom kill one...I save them for the others...

I do kill a ton of does, we kill 40-50 a year on our farms...
They taste better after a summer of filling up on our beans,
peanuts and corn...

Any good management program needs to include does in the equation...

dlo_hunter

150 minimum with gun......140 with bow.

Alltlk4

Yes, we have to include does in any good managment plan. We take as many as we can. In Missouri we can buy unlimited doe tags for 9 bucks each. I try to always take at least one myself. I have friends who hunt with me. We usually take 5-10 in any given year.

Mojotex

I hunt with a group of 14 others on 3150 acres of pine plantation of various ages that also has excellent acorn bearing hardwoods along the many streamside management zones and plenty of browse along side our many, many miles of mowed woods roads and under the patches of the older pines. Very good deer habitat for SE Alabama.

We are not a "trophy club" as such. Our gentlemen's agreement is "mature bucks". We also try for a minimum of 5 does/each membership. This has worked great over the many years that I have been with this group. We seldom kill any buck less than a 165#, 8 pt. I realize a 165# -er is probably only a 3 - 3 1/2 year old, but that's Ok with us. One season one of the guys killed a 234#, 6 pt. (a 5x1). We usually bring in 3-4 nice bucks each year and certainly have plenty of freezer meat from the does. Last year we bagged 3 super bucks, including a fine 10 pt. that green scored right under 170. Five of the bucks we took scale-weighed over 200#. We average about 2 bucks each and we usually end up killing 2-4 "oops bucks" (button heads) shot for does. We have stayed right around 70 +/- does since 2002. Lowest number that I can recall was about 65. Last season we were took just over 80 does. Our bag agreement has resulted in keeping the club a fun place to hunt.