You cannot significantly impact genetics by culling. How do you know which does are carrying that gene??

This is from a Genetics Symposium at Texas A&M back in 1998. It has some interesting studies and papers that were reported on. Scroll down to the "THE ROLE OF GENETICS IN WHITE-TAILED DEER MANAGEMENT" by JEREMY F. TAYLOR on pages 99-103(PDF pages 105-109). It was a very interesting presentation that changed my thoughts on culling and management of deer from that day forward. This is key to why I changed my culling and management practices-" These four things are: 1) heritability, 2) the amount of variation you have in the population, 3) the intensity with which you select individuals, and 4) the generation interval, which is primarily determined by the culling rate. A very important thing to note at this point is that heritability is not the only factor that dictates the rate at which you can change a population by selection" were covered in this presentation.
This is the second to the last paragraph in the presentation- "The more genetic progress you are making, the better are the younger individuals in the population. Even though these individuals have small antlers because they are young, genetically they have the potential to have much larger antlers when they are 4.5 years of age, than do the 4.5 year old males that are currently in the population. Consequently, hunting the existing 4.5 year old bucks in the population is desirable in the sense that it allows the genetically superior and younger males to breed the females. This strategy will help maximize the intensity of selection in males and therefore increase response to selection."

http://texnat.tamu.edu/files/2010/09/TheRoleofGeneticsinWhitetailedDeerManagement2ndEdition.pdf

Never really seen much of straight 6 pt(3x3) gene that stayed in the herd after deer numbers were reduced and nutrition increased to remaining deer. Not saying it can't be a dominate antler trait just never seen stay when numbers management was started. The other bucks that were lopsided in antler (4x2 or 5x2 or 5x3) were more injury related IME. They either correct themselves over time or stay that way the rest of their lives.

It's a low fence topic. That's all I've ever hunted. I can believe that It could be impossible to clear out the funky beamed bucks for good. There's no telling how long the herd has been there in the first place. Might be unbeatable.

My response was based on the fact that the OP is a low fence only hunter. I don't think there have been any low fence ranches that have proven to be "manageable" in terms of culling to significantly influence antler charactoristics.

In fact most large high fenced ranches using only culling to improve genetics are gonna take more than a human lifetime to acheive significant results.

Age and nutrition are his best bets for improvement.

No doubt there are exceptions to all rules. I have a buck that at 3 (I think because they are all native in Uvalde) was a perfect 4 on one side, but had an extra main beam tine (7") coming out of the inside beam and on the same side had a 4" dagger pointing down over his eye.

I know it's the same deer because he has perfect matching round white spots on his neck. He's now 7 yo and has never been more than an average symmetrical 8.

There is a LF ranch not to far from your ranch in South Texas that has made a tremendous difference in the over all herd quality with culling.

And I would argue that it's age structure and nutrition. And I believe current data supports my theory.

Back in '98 they thought butter was bad for ya!

I'd have to see the data. I don't believe there are any studies that prove that. Not saying they haven't seen improvement in desired antler characteristics.

But no way do I believe it was a genetic shift due to heavy culling.

They had age structure before they started a heavy culling program. Were not feeding protein or food plots.

Chaparossa Ranch. They will have the data and the deer in the "Book" to prove it from before to after culling. Those who have been on the ranch to see will know what it looked like before culling around '97 till today.