Several have said something like “it’s easy, just shoot what you dont like.” I dont think it’s usually that easy.
Im sure anyone saying that is taking into consideration how old they think it is. When a group of hunters start having to age deer, as I think they should, then it quits being easy right there.
Another reason, in the OPs case, and most of us, there are other hunters involved. So the buck that YOU “dont like”, may be just fine for another lease member.
Unless everyone wants to pre approve every buck before its shot, then you need something in place that defines what a non trophy is.
The OP knows that and thats why he posed the question. Good luck to him.

Bobo, you’re gonna need to try again if you want me to understand your comment.

Goal of a cull is different between the two programs. The 640 average lease cull is really an appeasement tag to let something decent get to maturity or post mature. Where the upper end leases/ranches like TLK’s lease, they are not there for “A” buck, they are there for THE one. Easy cull program, any deer at 6.5 that not what the lease hunters would kill at 6.5, sell it, or it dies of old age, the lease hunters don’t care.

Trying to manage culls on a high end well manage lease is just easier, the definition is much simpler. Your lease hunters aren’t trying to push the definition because of what they are paying premium dollars to hunt

I know mature deer, but to guess the exact age. Is he 4.5 or 5.5 years old? My deer don't have ear tags where I can look back and see how old they are. And deer may be like women. How good were they taken care of? Is she 35 or 55? Some are very hard to tell.

4.5 -5.5 isn’t that hard as you start accumulating history on deer from year to year, even with out history, the only time it’s normally blury is late season post rut. With that said Skeletal mature and mature are different 6.5 deer isn’t blury

Per Bobo… “”Goal of a cull is different between the two programs. The 640 average lease cull is really an appeasement tag to let something decent get to maturity or post mature. Where the upper end leases/ranches like TLK’s lease, they are not there for “A” buck, they are there for THE one. Easy cull program, any deer at 6.5 that not what the lease hunters would kill at 6.5, sell it, or it dies of old age, the lease hunters don’t care.
Trying to manage culls on a high end well manage lease is just easier, the definition is much simpler. Your lease hunters aren’t trying to push the definition because of what they are paying premium dollars to hunt”””

Gotcha Bobo and I agree and a good point.

Pretty much common sense...

Culling on a high-end lease is going to be easier likely because that hunter is going to see many more deer.

Life’s short, just let em shoot what’s a trophy to them.

Life is ALSO short for the other lease members that define Trophy differently. Keeps coming back to insuring like mindedness of all involved.

Truth!

A lot of good points made in both directions. I think the lease just needs to make sure the {Goals} are all laid out and the 'team' is on board. On the ranches that are owned that have higher expectations a cull/management buck probably will score more since we're most likely focused or in a slightly different mode. Some of my management bucks have touched160 for various reasons. Others 7/8 pt 120s. Also we take out long horn spikes since our numbers are too high (mouths). In addition to whacking the dry does. It's not an exact science. Just make sure all are on the same page! At the end of the day its about having a safe, good time in camp!

Single or no brows are what I would focus on as that is a trait passed on by bucks. Doe carry 50% of the traits as well. I wouldn’t over think the naming of the deer….. trophy or non trophy and here is why, we chased a 7yo 6 pt for 3 years before we finally connected and harvested him.The hunter that shot him claimed him as a trophy because of his age. The other point is kids get get discouraged if the deer they are proud of is called a cull.Try to keep the guidelines simple so it’s fun and easy for everyone.

Getting the number of does on a place under control is #1 factor in culling, I believe. Culling does also has a tendency to bring different bucks onto a place, especially if the places are of smaller acreage. Different bucks creates competition and also has a tendency to disperse the genetics to some degree. Basically culling is getting rid of enough mouths to where the remaining mouths can get an extra mouthful every time they get up to feed.

I’m gonna need some more abstract though to figure out how fewer does draws in more bucks.

Should have said different does rather than fewer. We killed 35 does on a 500 acre low fenced place in the Hill Country a few years back. The result was that the land offered a little more feed for a year or so and does slowly drifted back in bringing different bucks with the. My mistake. Sorry.

Hello Everyone,

My apologies for starting the conversation and not staying engaged in the conversation. I bought a new to me Ranger and I've been spending all my time on maintenance and upgrades. I've come to the conclusion that the engineers a Polaris obviously didn't include any mechanics when designing their machines.

I'd like to thank everyone for their input. Lots of good points to consider as I define the strategy for our lease.

Because culling bucks does nothing to improve the proportion of "big" bucks or genetics, then I suggest the rule of killing only old bucks regardless of what's on their head. Then all you have to do is decide on a gross B&C cutoff mark.