I mostly agree, but if you need to eliminate a certain number of deer it gets one more, it keeps him out of any posible late rut, and it makes it certain that he won't breed next year. Sure it would have been better to take him out early, but it's not quite a total loss.

So am i right to say that there is no way to truly manage your deer herd without the use of a high fence?

MLD

You can manage just not control genetics...there's a difference.

Wishing I'd shot a tall narrow 8pt with tons of mass. He was 2.5 or 3.5. There are both better and worse genes on the place and it's about to be permanently closed to hunting anyway.

Ok..but not all leases or ranches have MLD..so without that how are you to truly manage the herd?

If I don't get on MLD I'll never control my numbers.

I disagree. A high percentage of mature deer never get seen or shot at. If you can knock off spikes, and keep doe number in check then you will definitely improve a place over no management at all. Quite a few idiot hunters actually manage a place well by accident. Most guys hunting trophie who are good at what they do end up high grading a place, while most knuckle heads crashing through woods shooting everything they see end up keeping doe numbers incheck an shooting deer that needed to be removed. Now shooting 7-8 pt yearlings and nice 2.5 8's can be a problem if it happens to too much.

MLD is the way to go. If the population is very dense one guy can't really manage a place that size even if he never shoots a nice one.

So without the use of high fence or MLD it is gonna be really tough then?..thanks for being patient with my questions guys..just trying to Learn a little here..i grew up with a father who was raised in the sticks of Mississippi and they didn't eat unless it was grown, hunted, or fished..in saying that growing up as a kid i would get in trouble if my dad found out i passed on a deer..if it was brown it damn sure Better be down..now that i am a grown middle aged man with my i own family i have the luxury of letting deer pass and i do just that until i see one that strikes my fancy.. I just have never been a part of a lease that tries to manage there herd..thanks for the education!

LAMPs/mld1 can work. Just have to go in with a game plan.

How many ranches have you managed to advocate the shooting of spikes?

Yes. It's going to be tough

You need to form a co-op with your neighbors and get on MLD as a group.

That is going to be the most effective way to manage

Lesson learned for me is if you have a shot at a deer you want, take it the first chance you get. You never know what will happen from one second to the next. I let a massive buck walk bc I thought it was too far a shot to make at the time given the situation and conditions and hadn't seen him since. Not too upset about that as I would have hated it worse if I made a bad shot and he took off injured or something. Also waited to take the shot on what would have been a personal best and waited too long and a big group of pigeons flew in and scared him off. Really upset about this one as I had this deer dead to rights as he was walking in. I should have bleated and stopped him and shot but tried to wait till he stopped on his own and it cost me. Hoping to get a shot on one of the 2 before Sunday night.

thats why it called hunting i guess..and i love it so much

I should have shot my buck earlier in the season. I had seen him several times through the year, I thought he was a eight and I was holding out for a 10. I saw a 10 at the feeder and shot him. Come to find out it was the same buck and his brow tine (8-10 inches) had broke off!

There are plenty of gentlemen here that will help you weed out your culls.

you still eliminate the mouth from the herd. helps reduce stress on the property.

if we feel we have too many adult deer on the place at the end of the year we start at the bottom and work our way up. which is how you should manage anyway

When you hunt a small place and have neighbors on 3 sides who appear to shoot anything that moves, it is hard to pass a good buck. Accordingly it is difficult to have a management program. It is what it is and I do enjoy the whole ballgame, 300 acres or 600 acres.

LO's "daughter" let the horses out again?

When the wife says it is ok to go and hunt, then hunt. If she says no, you are not begging good enough!

I shot my "cull" opening evening. NB, would you say he's a decent genetically inferior buck to have taken out.

^^^ I have to wonder if this was caused by an injury of some kind.

I must admit a mistake.

I do wish I had shot the borderline deer I saw two Sundays ago. He needs toget older , but the place is going to be permanantly closed to hunting so I wouldn't have felt too bad .

That wasn't the mistake. The mistake was not google earthing the size of this field behind the in-law's place. Thursday I saw the biggest deer I've ever seen in my life. I almost always hunt with a 6x scope and twice this year hunting with something else has thrown off my range estimation. I thought I had my scope set on 9x and the sun was about 29 minutes from coming up. That deer looked tiny in the scope . Bigger than the last 400 yard shot I'd made, but I had done that with a 4X. I put it 18" over the back and flat out missed. The buck moved on. With the sun up more I could clearly tell he had been at 300 yards or less. I then looked down at my scope, wondering how he looked so distant at 9X...it was on 3X. I stalked to the other side of the tree line he went through just in time to see him walk through a gate to the other side of the fence where I can't hunt. Haven't seen the deer since. I s earthed it and the deer had been at about 265. I almost never mis-range a deer, and have never done it by that much. I still don't know how it happened.

I'd take either one honestly.

Never pass up a deer on the first day that you would shoot on the last![/quote]

Got skunked during bow season. Saw 2 140+ bucks but never closer than 60 yards. Passed on a very good 5.5 yo 8 that would go 135-140" fist 2 weeks of season holding out for bigger deer. It just never came together for me this year. Kinda kicking myself over the big 8 that probably needed to be shot anyway. But it is what it its. There's always next year. Who knows we might have the best spring in a century and some bruisers next year.