yea - we don't lose across the fence - but oddly i feel like we lose an older trophy buck every other year to injury or death from the rut.

slammerag said:

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Aggie_2463 said:

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The hardest part for managing a herd is getting trophies to age - we shoot for 7.5, but lost two 150" 6.5 year olds last year to neighbors we passed.

13k acres and still neighbors can be a pain

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Out of curiosity, how do you age 6.5 vs 7.5? At some point they look the same.

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We had been watching these for a couple years. Nobody ever really really knows. Even when they check teeth or send it to AM, nobody ever truelly knows age h less they tagged them when born. We use our best guesstimate after hunting for 30+ years.

JeremiahJohnson said:

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Was having this discussion with my dad today. He's killed every trophy in North America, including some monster white tail. He's of the boat that a 3.5 year old 8 will always be an 8. I am not so sure either way.

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I've got a 4 year old 9 point this year that was an 8 last year. So I would not pull the trigger based on "not going to get better"

But a mature 8 point is probably my favorite buck anyway.

You can't really manage for genetics on low fence. Let them get some age on them, shoot the ones that make you happy.

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managing and culling deer on a high fence place is doable (assuming lower than 1000 acres), low fence not so much. Would anyone argue otherwise?

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I would, because it has been proven that it isn't doable to any meaningful degree. You can cull to control numbers. You couldn't change herd genetics to favor larger antlers in a lifetime. Low fence, high fence, big place, small place. Doesn't matter. You'll run out of deer before you get it done.
Why?
*Because you can only control for antler size for 1/2 the population.
*Because bucks can breed at 1-1/2 years old.... before you would ever consider them old enough to cull.

You want to grow bucks with larger antlers: manage habitat, feed protein & keep the numbers in line with carrying capacity.

barnag said:

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nobody has mentioned it yet that I've seen, but managing and culling deer on a high fence place is doable (assuming lower than 1000 acres), low fence not so much. Would anyone argue otherwise?

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Na man.

We just count deer in October, make sure we still have the same amount or more than we had the year before, then shoot whatever we want for the freezer. Anything beyond that is a complete waist of time as far as I'm concerned

Sure we try to shoot for4.5 and older and it's been a few years since we shot younger, but I've run into the end of the season before several times and shot the first deer I saw because I needed the meat.

Low fence is about counting deer. High fence is….. whatever. I couldn't care less about antlers.