Lots and lots of pressure on two sides. Won't get into it but we have to adjust our harvest goals because the surrounding pastures.

We're in western Coryell county. I wouldn't consider this prime hill country with big numbers to begin with.

14 bucks on my camera this weekend and would consider all to be management bucks. Not one single deer has me excited.. no sign of that 8.

Our focus has been extremely conservative since the beginning shooting very few doe and only mature bucks. Establishing age classes and feeding year round. Think we went through 5.5-6 tons of protien this year. I've been on the side of letting deer fully mature to reach max potential most of my life, but the frustration is growing based on our results the past two years.

Here are a few bucks from this past week.







Don't know why they're not showing

In the filed 10/29

You still think he was 2.5 last year and 3.5 now? I've seen deer go down hill after their 5th year and I've seen deer with their best antlers at 9 and 10. Just because the deer added a good bit this year does not mean he isn't post-mature. As I said previously, I would bet money that is an OLD deer. And I mean no offense to you sir, but that is not a deer I would want passing down his genetics.

No offense. I posted to get this kind of feedback. I can't get him to smile, so who really knows.
he sure looked like a 3 yo yesterday and compared to the rest of our 3yo's, he's carrying a much better frame. We're going to let him slide this year and see what he looks like next year. I think 3 years of pics and sightings will tell us what we need to know. That first pic in Jan last year was after the rut. He looked really wore down, maybe even injured or sickly..
Understand we have a lot of 2-3 yo junk that will go this year. Alot of bucks that won't make 120" most likely at the age of 4-5.
We killed a 4 yo 8 this weekend with a base of 81, 6" above the avg from prior years.. but tine length was only 32"..
it's taken time to rebuild the population, but now we're changing the direction and shooting more middle aged culls this year which may be a bigger set back than we anticipated waiting this long.

Here's a 4.5 killed yesterday. 113.875"

I'd a shot the first one and let that one walk.

+1

I would say good call. Deer grow skeleton through the age of 3.5 so 4.5 is the first year that all the bone produced goes to antlers and when you see the first big jump if they are going to make one. He already shows the potential to be better than the deer you posted pics of. Cull from the bottom is what I do. What is worth saving is relative to what is there.