Cull or Kill "

[BT]

When your out hunting , do you try to manage your area by shooting only Doe's and Bucks that meet a size specification which you have set for your area?.

If you don't have your own land....do you still practice culling in hopes of someday having a better breed of bucks in the area?

If not....why?
I know of plenty of good reasons why....just wondering what yours are.

If you do cull an area ..... what have the results been?


I have a small chunk of land that holds the area's deer from time to time and 5 years ago I started shooting on bucks that would go 18" or better (I wish ;D) and the doe.
So far I have shot three that met the standard with one taking a walk on me due to a head failing on impact

The first two years I shot so many doe that I had a 9 person family's freezer space full and was giving meat away
It was crazy thick in doe when I first got this place.
The bucks never even had to leave their beds because sooner or later a doe would just trip and fall on them

After two years and no telling how many doe later , I started seeing bucks....lots of bucks but they were small.
The next year they were bigger and last year they were stupid big for 3 1/2 year old deer.
(I did think that I had a shot at the contest money last year )
As I have mentioned before....the bachelor group stationed here last year and when they split up they all split.

This year the doe are here and the bucks will have to come to them

I think it was worth it in my case

[Greg Krause]

On a few of my properties we shoot everything. that was the agreement we had with the owners because they are so overrun with deer.

On a few of my more promising properties we only shoot good bucks, does and weak bucks. If I see a buck that has a very deformed rack, he goes down. If I see a buck that is only a spike or small 4 and looks to be older than 2.5 we will probably shoot it. if the deer is mature we will shoot it reguardless. it seems to be working. we are seeing much better bucks the past few years.

[tdickens58]

Where I hunt, we try to take as many does as we can (legally) and try to go for the "shooter" bucks.

But, The property I hunt is small and I doubt trying to manage on that size property has any effect.

The deer population in my area is way high and we need to thin out as many does as we can though.

[BT]

tdickens58 said:

But, The property I hunt is small and I doubt trying to manage on that size property has any effect.

Dont bet your life on it ..... with all due respect to you .... I have seen it done (at my place) with a good deal of success.

Dont give up on the idea if you believe in the theory

[tdickens58]

The reason, I say that is that other people hunt property all around mine and I would think they would have to follow the same practice. But I believe what you are saying.

[BT]

My grandfather has been trying to kill off a particular gene pool for 50 years and hasn't succeeded yet
The gene pool has an enormous amount of points but their racks would fit in a ten gallon hat.

It is very hard to kill off a gene pool.

If even one makes it there will be four and then two which become 8 and on and on.
The survivors may be hard as hell to get and only rarely seen but they will be there to give you the opportunity eventually

[royden]

I have heard (and it makes sense) that the does are just as much contributers to the gene pool as the bucks so shooting the older breeding does makes sense to me when trying to improve the genetics of the herd.

[tdickens58]

I have actually heard that it makes more sense to kill the younger does, because the have more years to procreate than the older ones.

I'm not sure which way is more effective.

[stilllearning]

The only reason I shot bucks only is because of the tag set up here in New Brunswick and that is all I can get it seams is buck only. so I didn't vote.

[BT]

I am talking your mind set....doesnt matter what you are forced to do
I know I didn't put a kill 'em all on the poll stilllearning....sorry about that! ;D