This will be my second year deer hunting and first year at this spot. Land is ~30 acres or so but not sure what kind of pressure is surrounding me. I am no expert on guessing age. I want to make sure I take mature deer or deer that need to be out of the herd. Please give me your opinions. All dates/times are correct.

Spike that shows up pretty often:









8 point:

None of those bucks look very mature to me. If you're itching to shoot something, that one with the spike on one side doesn't seem to have a whole lot of potential. But really, the genetics all around seem pretty poor.

I'm no management expert, though. Just wait til STX chimes in and do what he says. He's the resident expert on these matters.

First you gotta figure out how to hunt at night (legally) cause rifle season is getting close and those boys are cruising in the dark!

The first I would remove is that ugly spike, all look to be 3.5s to me. The others would receive their hall pass, yet on 30 acres you may never see the again. Set the feeder to a tad earlier in the evenings to force their hand if they want some candy. Absolutely no nitetime throwing
Good luck

1st buck is young and may look very different next year, but if you are overrun with deer in the area, I'd take him out. It may be hard to determine if you only have access to 30 acres. Buck 2 & 3 are at least middle age and should be better than what their headgear shows. If you can cull them all, I would.

The first spike on the left I would shoot. All the other bucks with antlers that you can see their whole body in the pics are 4+ some much older I M O. I would shoot any of these if you like them. I don't see upside to any except maybe the one buck that we can only see from the neck up in the background. Good luck.

I would not shoot the buck with one spike. He is not a 1.5 yr old but it appears he damaged that antler in velvet growing stage. If he damaged one side then he could have damaged both. So that might not be a "normal" rack he grew due to injury. I would not shoot the weird racked buck for the same reasons as the "one spike" buck. He is a year younger than the wide short tine 8 point IMO. Of all those bucks I would shoot the wider short tine 8 point since he is the oldest looking buck in those pics. He is very short tined also. I would say he 4.5 or might be a bit older than that. I would also see what shows up a bit closer to the rut or first of general season.

Thank you all for the replies. I'm not itching too bad to pull the trigger on just anything. I have the feeder going off at 7am and 5:30pm right now. I do have a few day pictures of some small does, but all the bucks are coming in at night. Is there anything I can do to prepare for next season? Would a protein feeder help?

That tells me that bucks are living a distance away from your hunting property since they are showing up at night. A protein feeder can help attract deer and hold them but it will come with quite a bit of expense. If you feed year round and have twice as many does as you have bucks the money you spend can add up quickly. If you can do 1-2 acre food plot it could do the same as a protein feeder if you get the rain and have a good food plot. It will be a lot less expensive also. (livestock grazing will be an issue with a food plot and no fences)

From what I can tell from the game camera pictures the doe to buck ratio is around 1:1. Most of the pictures I have are of the bucks. There is a spot that would be good for a food plot, but I don't really have any farming skills. I started throwing corn about 2 months ago and plan to feed year round. I'm thinking a protein feeder will probably be the best for me given the ease and lack of farming.

Would you suggest taking the short tined 8 point this year? Or pass and hope he shows back up next year?

If you like that buck take him. He is the oldest in those pics. You still have a couple of weeks to get more TC pics before you make that decision. The rut will have bucks moving around more also. He could leave and new ones could show up.

Thank you for the help. I will probably take a few sitting in the blind sessions before making any rash decisions. And that's if they decide to ever make an appearance during daylight hours.

For reference, this is what I'm working with. Most activity is at the North setup. May just be because the camera there is better.

Red dots = feeders
Blue dots = box blinds

You are going to be looking into the sun in the afternoon. Anyway you can move your feeders to the north a bit or blind to the south so you are looking northwest? I assume your pervading wind is out of the southwest.

IMO, it depends on where your at and what your goals are. All of these bucks where I am at are goners; however, on some places there might be a place for them to get a pass and another year to show something.

It may be possible to rearrange my blinds/feeders a little bit, but I want to make sure I keep safe shots since it's a smaller property. The way they are setup now provides pretty good backstops. I will probably run this season as-is this year then rethink the setup for next year.

Property is located in Lamar County. I don't know what the surrounding pressure is like so I'm not sure if I pass on deer if they will make it through the season. I guess that is something I will find out next year. My goals are to have fun, not take deer that I shouldn't, etc. I don't have high expectations for this year but I plan to start feeding protein for next season with hopes of a noticeable rise in potential.