Jack_Bauer

I got these pics off my Stealth Cam yesterday in Eastern NC and was wondering if I should cull this deer out because of his right side horn. It looks like the left side has 3 points with no brow tine and the right side only a fork with 2 points. The left side looks good for his age but not sure if the right side horn will develop in to a normal configuration next year. I would guess that the deer is about 2-3 years old. I've gotten shots of a few 6 points, 4 points and cow horns, and spikes in the area. Any ideas?

Thanks!!!

Jack_Bauer

Another pic of the above deer.

mello_collins

not yet

timbercruiser

If you are in to "growing antlers" then leave him alone, he is just a young buck. Probably 1 1/2 years old.

vadeer

agreed.

USFWC

He's young...learn to ID age classes and harvest when they reach a certain age...trying to manipulate genetics in a free-ranging deer herd is next to impossible...that is something for high-fenced areas where they can keep less-than-desirable genetics out. ONE of those breeding deer in a population perpetuates the genetics...whether or not those are good or bad genetics should be up to mother nature to decide, IMHO. Since this particular buck is young, you wouldn't be able to tell for a couple more years what kind of genetics he has anyway.

whitetailbowhunter

Not yet.

Mat

ACutting

according to all the research studies the idea of culling is fairly useless and if you decide you must cull wait till at least 3 1/2 y/o

Bob S

What an expert says about culling:

"Genetics is probably the most confusing issue of deer management, and often any perceived problem is blaimed on genetics as a "catch-all" answer. Yet genetics should be of no concern what-so-ever for the manager of a particular property. Unless you have a high fence, you can do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the genetic make-up of a free-ranging deer herd. Deer social systems are specifically designed to maximize genetic diversity within localized populations. Yearling bucks disperse from their birth ranges, taking their genetics with them. By late in the fall, a high percentage of yearling bucks (which will become older bucks if they survive) on any given property may have come from "somewhere else" bringing in new genetics. Older bucks expand and even shift their ranges during the rut, meaning some if not many of the bucks doing the breeding during the peak of the rut on a given property also come from "somewhere else" and are not resident bucks. When social dynamics are appropriate, all of the does in a hierarchical social group (genetically related) come into estrus about the same time, ensuring they are all bred by different bucks, increasing genetic diversity of their offspring.

The point is, whitetailed deer maximize their genetic diversity within localized populations. You cannot overcome that through harvests. New genetics are constantly being inserted into the local population.

As managers, we should focus on the most common factors for herd under-performance, and those are nutrition, herd density and herd composition (soical dynamics). We should spend no time on things we can't control, such as genetics. Within every local herd there will be bucks with exceptional genetic potential and bucks with very poor genetic potential. Let Nature take her course when it comes to genetics. She's been doing so for thousands of years. In addition, we don't know enough about genetics to control them even if we could."
Bryon Kinkel, BSK Consulting

Mossy_71

Exceptional qoute, Bob S.