i'm not saying that yearling spikes will become 180" giants.....but most will become average size at maturity. you cannot change what the top end is thru culling....can't happen. only way to do that is introduce genetics if your already letting bucks reach maturity and not shooting them when they are 3 years old.

So you let all the crab clawed deer, no brow tined deer, short beamed deer, etc make it to maturity?

oh my god, no, you shoot them at 3 years old.....when you can tell what they are. you can't tell if a spike is going to be a crab clawed 8 point or a 145" ten.

unless your average deer is a short beamed, crab clawed deer with no browtines....if thats the case then your SOL

You said NOT shooting them when they are 3, so I was just clarifying

ok, you got me.


lets just go back to arguing about amos/marko's name

These arguments are almost as much fun as the HF threads.

I think I am going to pick a section of one of our places and shoot all the yearling with 4 or more points. Shouldn't change the herd because all the ones with 3 or less points will catch up I will get back to this thread in 10 years and let you know the results of my adventure

Why you gotta bring my no brow deer into this t-rex?

Because it should have died!!!!! Along with stumpy, gumby and STX

go for it.

They're still bigger than a lot I see roll through

we shoot all yearling spikes and this is what our 1.5 yr olds look like.

Those sheds are bad [censored]

it seems easier to do (not pulling the trigger) if you have a long-term stake in the place.

There's a fine line to flirt with on the does, I've seen where places never really shot enough and were still fine, I've seen where places have shot way too many and lucked out with pitiful fawn crops for several years. REgardless, on any mgmt thread the first advice dished out is to "hammer the does" without any info on the particular property.

Regardless, any advice you receive on a management thread should be taken with a grain of salt because no single plan can be implemented the same way on every ranch and expect to get the same result.

My plan has been implemented on 5 different properties and it's working the same on all of them

Short tines and no brows

as yearlings. I no longer have any no brow deer though.

see...browtines. So now I'm down to no deer that should have them and don't

Suckers got some 3's

I like him...I'm going to see what kind of mass he can add at 6.

I just saw a long yearling spike w/fork on one side..and remembered we had a very mature buck w/a large 15 in spike and 6
points around here for a few yrs...hence we get a lot of 1 horned
culls...Most cattlemen, breeders, cowboys, ect do not try to put bad genetics into a herd..Now tell me how to kill the does and identify the ones that came from this cull..I've seen this both ways..they all fit in a skillet..and I'd rather have 6 to 10 point yearlings than 7yrs old cull 8s that make the book..and so would most game breeders..Last I heard 8's and 9's were culls too...just a lot of money if the B&C..Don

"Most cattlemen, breeders, cowboys, ect do not try to put bad genetics into a herd"

no comparison to wildlife b/c their selective breeding and artificial diets make those deer what they are. You can take a high dollar steer and make him look like pasture junk by not feeding him out right.

Sounds like HF

Ummm can I put my spike in the fork of the tree?