Real hunting is getting out in the wild and pursuing wild deer.

All this "should I cull this deer" is not what the spirit of hunting is. Why not just put up a fence and buy super sperm. And what ever happened to getting excited when you see a deer? Now it's just "I think I'll pass that one" or "I think I should take that one out of the gene pool".

Nobody "fibbed" to me. It's hunting. Not genetic engineering, farming and window shopping.

Did the TV shows fib to you and make you think that this whole bucks of Tecomate scenario is real hunting? I'm sure that's not how you grew up in Pennsylvania doing it.

Plus, we need the automatic feeders like they have in Texas if we want to cull our inferior bucks.

dont know what everyone has against spikes, but i always see 1-2 spikes every year, and 3 to 4 shooter 8+"s on our property. we took 2 eights, and an 11 point last year and seen 3 spikes, 2 4pointers, and a bunch of 6 points. This year so far cams show pretty much the same 4 8's a few 4-6, and 1 spike so far. Give them time.....

How a person enjoys the sport or what a hunter decides to squeeze the trigger on or pass on (regardless of the reason) or whether or not they decide to use a feeder should be left up to the individiual hunter as long as they obey all the game laws and bag limits etc. It is none of your business whether or not they get excited or not when they see a deer or whether they decide to harvest a animal or pass it up to live another day.
I dont "Cull" bucks or ever even use the word because culling bucks does nothing to improve the herds genetics, anybody that thinks they can shoot a few bucks over a couple year time period that they think are inferior deer and change thousands of years of DNA is nuts!!
The only possible way to change the genetics of a herd is to eliminate every doe in the area. I dont judge a shooter by what he scores or how many points it has, I shoot the first 4.5 year old or older buck I get a chance at.
In my opinion 99% of the time when a hunter claims he shot a small buck because it was a "managment buck" isnt telling the truth unless his definition of a managment buck is a buck that he is embaressed to show his friends and needs an excuse to explain why he did, not that any hunter should be embarassed about any legal deer that they harvested under fair chase conditions.
Also I do not watch hunting shows or video's. I do however read as much as possible on everything that has to do with the whitetail deer other than how to kill one. ( from everything to how much blood a whitetail has is its body to how many times they deficate in a day and have done so since I was 12 years old)Pike

When a nice buck walks by your stand, you can worry about how old he is. I'm going to shoot him. :D

There are 150" ten pointers that are 3.5 years old. There are also 90" six pointers that are 7.5 years old. Are you going to let the 10 pointer walk and shoot the 6 pointer because he's over 4.5 years old?

This is the only 3.5 year old buck that I wouldnt have been able to restrain my self from shooting. I tried to fib to myself all summer :biggrin: and tell myself that I wanted to give him another year but I knew deep down that I wouldnt be able to pass up any deer that scored over 160 regardless of age. I have never seen a 4.5 + year old buck that scored less than 125 but a 90 inch 7.5 year old buck is a completely different animal than a 150 inch 3.5 year old and twice as hard to get into bow range of. Pike

This whole cull buck crap annoys me. It ain't hunting. It's farming and then window shopping.


X2 could not agree more. Can't make antlers taste good no matter how long you marinate them....

Here's a buck that's was at least 7.5 years old when the first picture was shot. Another when he was a year older.

The 3rd pic is a buck that's much younger.

That deer is still incredibly young... I'd say that if you are trying to do any type of management on your property, you need to let him go... I wouldn't put him past 1.5 - 2 yrs old.

Just my .02 cents

jmp that buck is 3.5 years old in the pic. I passed him up as a 2.5 year old and found both of his sheds aswell. Pike

Barnes I would be thrilled to shoot that buck!! It is a 280lb whitetail! Pike