Bucks - before and after rut

[redblood]

Boy I sure wish they would believe you. I get so tired of this topic where hunters think if everyone passes up everything until it's 5 or 6 years old, we'd have a plethora of 5 and 6 year olds running around.

I had this conversation just the other day with a guy trying to tell me how we should manage an entire area. I could feel my toe nails curling. He wanted to do trophy management but shoot the less desirable bucks at 2 and 3 years old and leave the larger rack bucks to reach 5 to 6 years old. I just simply told him they would be shooting future shooters early and they would not have any mature deer to hunt. I dont think he believed me, I just told him you guys shoot what you want but I'm only shooting 4 year olds and up.

I've hunted a variety of farm locations, I do see what I believe to be a much higher survival rate in ag areas compared to woodland; especially river bottom land

4.5 and up is a great policy. I had tontrain myself thats its the size of the neck not the size of the rack. Now the rack means very little to me. But a huge muscled up neck……its go time

This is so true. When doing photo censuses in ag land, even in areas with little cover and solid harvest pressure, I'll get 7 and 8-year-old bucks on cam. In ridge-and-hollow hardwoods, 7-year-old bucks are almost a figment of the imagination they are so rare. Little hunting pressure, no poaching pressure. They just die. At my place, running photo censuses since 1999, I've gotten a grand total of one 7 1/2 year-old buck. 6 1/2s are pretty darn rare too.

 

[Dumbluck]

Little hunting pressure, no poaching pressure. They just die. At my place, running photo censuses since 1999, I've gotten a grand total of one 7 1/2 year-old buck. 6 1/2s are pretty darn rare too.

Same exact experience in woodland habitat. I've only had one buck since about that time frame until now that was 7 1/2 that I was able to keep track of. He died of old age. In that time frame, I've had and killed quite a few 5 years olds but probably only had 2 or maybe 3, 6 year olds.

I've got buddies that run farms in Texas and they are like "yeah you gotta let them get 6 or older to get real big" I always laugh at them and tell them they have lost their damn mind, our deer mostly die before they get that old.

 

[Dumbluck]

4.5 and up is a great policy. I had tontrain myself thats its the size of the neck not the size of the rack. Now the rack means very little to me. But a huge muscled up neck……its go time

Yeah buddy. It can be hard to pass up a big 3 year old but most of them blow up at 4. It took me a long time to get to that place and then it also took me a while to figure out most of the 4 year olds I kept track of that went into winter surviving the season never made it out to be huntable at 5. I seem to lose a ton of those bucks to EHD.

 

[killingtime 41]

3.5 year old or older is what I will shoot. If it gets my adrenaline pumping then o shoot if it doesn't I don't. I really only hunt public so 3.5 is hard to find sometimes. That's why I don't shoot many bucks. It's what I've come to grips with. Especially those areas same as statewide. Good luck