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

 

[Ski]

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 tried. Doesn't work. If a property has room for two mature bucks then it doesn't matter how many young bucks you pass up. You'll only ever average 2 mature bucks. In my experience the herd self regulates in terms of buck age structure/dispersion.

Those younger bucks grow up and leave when there no longer is a place for them. More than anything bucks of all ages 2yrs+ come and go but the average age structure throughout the year repeats year after year. Now I have been able to increase carry capacity with habitat work which increases the number of bucks on the property, but it's across all ages so age structure doesn't change.

Point being it's impossible to stack a place with mature bucks. Nature doesn't seem to allow it.