Cull Bucks. Let's see them

I spend a lot of time looking at game cam pics deciding which bucks are on the hit list so I can target them during the season. I also use the pics to give to visitors that might come to sit for some table fare. Interested to hear if others spend as much effort as I do. Here is a video of my daughter this past weekend taking one of my targets. He was very easy to pick out since his ears never stood up and we called him 'floppy'. His rack looked exactly the same last year and he was on last years hit list, but he managed to escape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQq6YL1Vpe4

and here is another one I took with my bow last weekend.

Those were two excellent shots! I had to watch the video a couple times to see which deer was shot second. Congrats to your daughter, she seems to be a great shot.

A few I had pictures of over the years.

He was a regular right up until season.

I had him picked out for my daughter.

He still comes in about once a week

Looking forward to seeing HER successful conclusion

I like that one a lot! Cool brows.

Short tined.

We've had quite a few in few different areas over the years.

Shot this guy last Saturday morning. He had the same antler configuration last year and got passed over thinking he had damaged it in the velvet, but it turned out his skull was actually damaged causing the weird antler growth. But even without that droopy side, he would have been a cull.

All of these are/were on the hit list and there are plenty more targets

That’s a cool looking deer

Another one on our list:

Lots of neat looking culls. If most of those were where I hunt they would be protected by the 13" antler restriction.

"Backstraps" in more of a vertical pose

Gonna see what we can do with this one. I'm gonna try to shoot it, but I really don't feel like doing it haha. It's not that I don't enjoy hunting, but I'm going after a buck in Kansas pretty hard right now so I'll see if I feel up to it or not later.

Will have to look for more but I have plenty of them. Took pics of two this week that I have not moved from camera to computer.

Think I might of let him walk to hopefully pass on mass genetics

some interesting looks on some of these guys!

I still don't understand that regulation. Now if they want to protect the very young bucks while allowing hunters to take the more mature / less desirable ones, then alter the restriction to something like... 13" inside spread -or- 20" main beam length. I know it's much harder to judge on the hoof for beginners, but still.... I'm SO glad I'm not in a restricted county.

Both pics taken opening weekend. The big 6 was an 8 last two years but has never been seen on the hoof. He’s at least 6 years old

I was told that this buck did the same thing last year. In velvet his tines (except the brow tines) were fat on the end, just like the beams, and they broke off right away when he rubbed off. They gave him a year to see if he would straighten up.
Indeed, he was very heavy, bases were 5 1/2".

Ya in our county (Denton) we could not kill most of ranchmans culls. On our place we have a few narrow bucks like that that need culling!

On the other hand... without AR's in many of those counties you wouldn't even have the cull bucks to shoot if not for the restrictions. I understand some people had circumstances that were fine before them, but I believe for the overwhelming majority they have been a positive.

Some of them culls would be considered good bucks on my place.

Cull?

Wow, that too is a neat looking cull!

AR's are good for keeping beginners and weekend warriors with itchy trigger fingers honest for the most part. Outlaws will do what outlaws do. It does make it difficult to manage a herd by age though, especially for some herd managers who need to balance the age of the herd but have some narrow or bad genetics in deer that are mature and post prime. If AR's were really meant for age management they could set up a check stations for old narrow racked deer to be brought in and recorded so they can keep up with herd characteristics in the area. Even allow a processor to record the data. Like I said outlaws will do what outlaws do regardless of the law. I would be willing to log and send the data in myself if it meant I could get that mature management buck out of the herd. This wouldn't impact the population much but it could help with antler characteristics. We manage the does as well so that it's not only the bucks being taken out.

I would rather have smaller bag limits and shoot whatever deer made me happy. On the other hand I guess the ARs are to deer hunting what minimum length limits are to fishing. We follow the rules but I sure want to break them when I see one of our deer with messed up racks that just keep showing up year after year and are protected by the law.

This one made the team last weekend...

Honestly, i think I enjoy cull hunting more than trophy hunting at this point, lol

Meat is meat, I think this mentality should be shared. If nothing else to see potential improvements in your herd. It would be nice to actually not have a cull to hunt one day.

Many of the AR counties were 1 deer counties already, cant get smaller than 1 deer bag limit and still shoot one.

Couple more from this week. In an AR where I live they are safe for a while if not till death of natural causes.

This buck was on our hit list up here. Saw him the night before I took the young 4 pt, on the neighbor's. Since the season ended he has been all over by the ranch house.
A nice heavy, wide 2x3.

Here’s one I watched all season on the last lease I was on. One of the other hunters sons took it late in the season.

Me find another one... Note the left front knee.

Now this is a thread I can get behind. I don't care about big deer anymore, it's all about culls.

Here's a different view of that axis. Had his skull fractured and healed with the pedicle almost 90 degrees offset. He did tape in at almost 36" wide.

36 inches inside! monster!

My granddaughter just said he did that deer a favor. She's 7.

Pawpaw

A couple more.... One man's cull is a young man's trophy.

Before and after for one of our target culls.

We think this was a hybrid, but I didn't know enough about them at the time to check the glands.

hybrid with what?

This is a panhandle deer. Whitetail/mule deer hybrid killed in 2010. I have both on my property.

He looks like s plains whitetail to me, they are big bodied. We have some hybrids up here and they usually have a very different look to them.
However, wouldn't be surprised if he was, it happens.
Did he have a foot injury?

No injury. I had a Euro done of the skull, and the guy who did it also does a lot of mule deer Euros. About 3 hours after I dropped it off, he called me to state he believed it to be a hybrid. Apparently there are subtle differences in the skulls of the two species, and this buck's skull had a lot of the mule deer characteristics he normally sees. I don't know, and I'm not qualified to make a determination. Some people get pretty animated/passionate about the hybrid discussion (there's a lot of myths and misinformation out there), so I'm not interested in participating in a debate. I don't care either way. It's just an interesting buck and certainly one I hope didn't pass on too many of those antler genes. Lord only knows if he's a hybrid or not.

I’d say he qualifies.

Some of these would be trophies on our place.