Need some advice on managing bucks on my low fence ranch. Only 1 ranch hunts around me. I protein feed year round some. cant afford 2000 a month etc. my question is its my second year in it now i see alot more decent bucks few older ones so its helping with buck to doe ratio. Question is i have most bucks have good high racks not to wide but little dog catchers and kinda claw horn btw g3 & main beam? I have few that are good with nice frames but same or more with small catchers or claw. How do i increase better horn quality? Im talking catchers quarter to half inch long on 2 to 3 year olds. Should i cull these bucks out or give them couple years? Any advice will help thanks.

2 and 3 yr olds are babies. If they are already sprouting nontypical points there is no way in heck I would consider killing them. BTW, width is way overrated.

I'd concentrate on shooting does first and foremost.

Have you brought in a biologist? Have you determined what your land's carrying capacity is? Have you done a survey to determine what your population is? What your buck:doe ratio is? What is the age structure of the bucks on the place?

Doesn't matter what you do, you will always have some inferior horned deer. The best thing you can do is reduce the population and balance the buck:ratio. All the while increasing the age structure of the bucks.

How many acres are we talking about and what county? IMO if you are having 2 and 3 yr old bucks without or that short of browtines they need to be culled. IME browtines are something you can cull for in a herd even LF. Like rtp said spread is over-rated. That is a common trait in the Hill Country but was is not common are short brows. Hill Country deer for the most part on the ranches I have seen have great browtines.

280 acres gillesspie county. More then half my 3 year olds have great high racks but half inch catchers. Few of my old bucks 4 to 5 year olds also have little catchers. Is it genetic? I kill lots of does every year and have big coastal field on place. I just cleared 80 percent of the ceder off place about 2 years ago to give more food source. I WOULDNT BE WORRIED BUT LOT 4 /5 YEAR OLDS ALSO HAVE same catchers? Last couple years just took culls and lot of does. Just dont want all bucks with small catchers? Cull or no?

What are your buck to doe ratios?

you'll have to kill off every deer within 10 miles of the place if the trait is that dominant.

Dont know buck to do ratio but know theres more does then bucks. So guess just have to live with it cause neighbors dont hunt. So will the catchers ever get better or stay small? Debaiting on shooting or not. My grandfather had place before i got it and he didnt mngt anything but always seemed to take good 10s and 12s with nice long catchers? What happened? Anyhow will they increase or not much as they get older?

Those mature bucks will not get any better brows than what they have now if they are short IMO. If those younger bucks are carrying the same traits then the doe have them also. Do you have any pics you can post of different age bucks?

I dont know how on here

I'm betting there's way too many deer...over carrying capacity. I'm also betting that the deer, including the bucks aren't getting the nutrition needed to be all they can be.

I'd deal with that issue before worrying about short brows. Just my opinion. Stxranchman knows his stuff, so I'd listen to what he has to offer.

280 acres is going to be hard to manage, you need multiple neighbors to help out. Keep taking more does. Nothing wrong with taking one of the older bucks if he doesn't have the type of rack you want.

Thanks for the info.

Yea there is tons of deer!

Usually one will see around 1 of 4 animals on a place. Many want
to wait, have no background in genetics or breeding. Young deer,
and Spikes breed every yr. if given any opportunity. If your deer are all born spikes then you have a problem in your genetics. Many of those same folks cull shoot at 4 to 5 yrs old,
not realizing that the animal may have breed 20 more and expanded
the problem..now figure which doe carry the gene..I watched this for yrs. in So. Texas cull shooting w/more than one biologists. We had a 1200 acre ranch in Uvalde County below Utopia once. The
deer had'nt been shot or hunted in about 10 yrs. The first two yrs all I took was long Spikes and Barron Doe, then I started culling the younger Spikes, finally got to where a majority of the females were giving birth to 4 to 6 point yearlings first horns. Next door neighbor got the old buck, and ended up being the largest taken in a low fence in that part of the County ever.
He was 26in wide and 15 points..I never would shoot him, it would
have been like shooting a Herd Bull..but I was happy for Mr. Whitehead..Don

Post some pictures of what you are calling 2-3 and 4-5 year old bucks.