Deer need extra special attention this year before they are taken as "culls" or management bucks. Years like this can severely hurt a herd for many years as folks get too aggressive with their "culling" strategy.

THINK before you shoot... if you don't have records of your game camera photos and file them by location, this year is a great example of why you NEED to do it. Many, Many, Many deer just like these are going to get killed this year and people will wonder what happened to the "big" deer never knowing they themselves took them as "culls".

This Year

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It's a MINEFIELD Out There!

Crazy what a drought year can do to a buck!

How do you identify the buck for sure? Markings on the body?

Trail cams, video cams and still cams are a deer managers best friend. Without records and documentation on deer you are playing a guessing game. One deer concerns me in this group and that is the top buck. He is either not been very healthy last year and this year or very old buck. He strikes me as very old. He has calouses on his knees which is a sign of age or a sign spending more time than normal bedded due to health. I killed a buck in La Salle County once that looked similar to this buck in many ways but showed a little more aging. His teeth were completely worn and I put him at 8.5 but I knew he was older. His dressed weight was if I remeber right 74 lbs and he scored 78. I still have his jaw. Great series of pics!

He's a 3 year old this year I'm pretty sure... behavior, photos and growth of body from last year to this all point that way.

Plus... deer on protein don't shrink into old age... they start to look like a square box most of the time.

X-ellent thread
I am seeing the same thing. I was able to feed pretty well through July. After that until this last rain I was overwhelmed. We have a nice green fuzz all over the ranch and the draws are greening well. This will put some weight on.

The older deer definatly look poorer than the rest. I need to have a reduction overall this year. Basically I am going to target everything 4.5 and up. I have a nice healthy number of young deer 3.5 and down. The challenge is that 3.5's this year will look similar to older bucks at 100 yds.

You guys are right about records. I have 1000's of game pics and records of every deer killed for the last 4 years. I have some gnarly old bucks that are ready. The drought will help me get these deer.

Great thread. Definitely something I've had in mind. This will certainly be a year to let any high-potentials walk. Focusing on controlling numbers and poor genetics (spikes, no brow tines, etc).

Spikes? Really? On a year like this?

good post amos!

never know how bad a drought can affect the deer

Good post...There is no doubt that it helps to have years of records. Figure there will be some deer taken this year that could have done great things.

Hardest part for us is that our deer travel so far. I have a 3.5 and a 4.5 that are running together. Have video at one stand and trail cams of them at another...the stands are about 3 miles apart as the crow flies.

Makes it difficult to track them and confirm that it is the same deer from year to year. We have an older 8 pointer that we tried to take last year, but he never gave us a chance...this year I have two that look alot like him, but I can't decide which one he is.

Good info!

Appreciate you reminding us all of this... It's definitely something we have to take into consideration!

Cool pics