Do you shoot "cull bucks"?

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bw I killed a spike that was about 180lbs with the guts in,at least 2.5 years old & maybe a tad older,never really seen a buck that somebody could tell me it was 1.Years ago if it had just spikes folks would say cull buck,I just admire & killem & eatem & let other folks decide what they want to callem lol.good read & closer to the truth than a some folks want to believe
 
My guess is that majority of "cull bucks" are killed simply because somebody wanted an excuse to pull the trigger.
 
IMO, free-roaming, there are no cull bucks in the entire state of TN (nor KY). "Cull" may have some validity in Texas, but even there, a buck generally has to reach 4 1/2-yrs of age before he's determined to be a "cull".

But TN ain't TX. And outside some extremely large management areas where zero bucks are killed before maturity, the word "cull" should be changed to "excuse" to rationalize one's desire to kill a buck which doesn't measure up to a particular hunter's stated minimum standards of a "trophy" buck. In other words, sometimes hunters don't want to admit to their peers that ANY buck is sometimes a "trophy" no matter what a particular hunter may claim to his hunting buddies.

Another common reason used to be, "I'm a meat hunter, and we need the meat." Heard much less since most true meat hunters now have the ability to kill a doe instead of a buck. Seems the recent trend in TN has been I'm hearing fewer claims of bucks being taken either as "culls" or for "the meat".
 
[size]But a disturbing TN trend is somewhat just the opposite of taking a true "cull" buck: Purposefully killing off the most outstanding antlered young bucks when they're only 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 yrs of age.[/size]

How's this happening? By the widespread embracing of antler restrictions in defining a "shooter" buck, most pointedly those such as "4 on a side" and/or "8 or 9 points or more". While such antler restrictions do allow more 1 1/2-yr-olds to survive to 2 1/2, they actually significantly INCREASE the harvest of the best antlered 1 1/2 and 2 1/2's. Across much of TN, we now have mainly the smallest antlered of bucks surviving to maturity, just the opposite of what happens with the true culling widespread in Texas.

I don't believe we have so much a problem with the killing of small-antlered bucks (locally called either culling or meat-hunting) now in TN. Our real problem that's preventing the larger scale production of high-scoring older bucks is the over-killing of the best of the best young bucks ---- just the opposite of true culling, as in Texas. The best practical solution to reverse this "antler high-grading" trend is simply to avoid killing any bucks before 3 1/2, regardless of their how big or how small their antlers.

In other words, use "age" as the first criteria in determining which buck is considered a "shooter", just like they do in Texas, whether it's for the purpose of true culling or for allowing an outstanding young buck to meet his potential.

Because truly outstanding antlered 2 1/2's are often easily mistaken for 3 1/2's, many hunters who have recognized the antler-high-grading issue, are now focusing on taking bucks 4 1/2 or older, i.e. a mistake is a 3 1/2 rather than that spectacular 2 1/2. The reward is a growing number of 4 1/2 and older bucks with truly top-end antlers, most of which had to first survive being truly top-end 2 1/2's.
 
CAW said:
My guess is that majority of "cull bucks" are killed simply because somebody wanted an excuse to pull the trigger.
Click to expand...

There it is, right there. Have to have an excuse to tell at the check station or drive in.

And, that is an excellent article.
 
CAW said:
My guess is that majority of "cull bucks" are killed simply because somebody wanted an excuse to pull the trigger.
Click to expand...



absolutely. i think the problem stems from the fact that most hunters really dont hunt anything else, so they wait all year to pull the trigger. after fall squirrel, coyote calling and dove season- i have carpal tunnel syndrome.
 
My prime target. 2.5-years old, has already contributed a male and female fawn and is in excellent shape. She walks by me, I'll trip the latch every time. She would be an especially prime target during the rut. Can't find a better decoy or lure than a dead doe laying right in front of your stand.

 
Lol if it early in the seasoning if its brown its down late on during the rut I let a spike and 4 points walk 2 years ago I could have killed a monster buck during the rut but I messed up when a hot doe came running in then a 4 point I shot the 4 point and right behind him was a monster 8 point so I learned a good lesson during the rut sometimes it best to let the small ones to walk
 
I try to make it 8 or better, shoot does for meat and enjoy my season. I don't enjoy taking small bucks (my big bucks would be small to a lot of you!) so I don't shoot them. If I need meat I will shoot a doe. I have my own rules for what I will shoot dependent on what weapon I am using. Bow is different from rifle and while I am using my 44 bh it will be different from holding a rifle.
 
easy45 said:
I shoot any buck that is 4.5 or older, I could care less what his antlers look like
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I'm shooting any buck that's 3 1/2, regardless of antlers, and probably shooting a "good" 2 1/2.
 
I've been shooting a buck every other year mostly for about 11 years now so I'm doing my part to increase average buck age in my area. It's not something I plan to do, it just works out that way. In the years where I shoot a doe early in the season, I have meat for my chili for the year so I'm a lot less blood thirsty for the rest of the season. Then some years I hardly see any bucks. I can't imagine experiencing what some of you do in getting many chances at bucks and passing dozens of smaller bucks. My very best year I had an opportunity to shoot only 5 or 6 bucks. I passed them all and shot 2 does. :) All the bucks were smallish 6 points or less.
 
BSK said:
easy45 said:
I shoot any buck that is 4.5 or older, I could care less what his antlers look like
Click to expand...

I'm shooting any buck that's 3 1/2, regardless of antlers, and probably shooting a "good" 2 1/2.
Click to expand...

Me too, BSK. About the only way I'll ever kill a 4 1/2 yr old is to hit it with my truck and I don't want to tear up my truck!

But seriously, I don't see a problem with focusing on shooting bucks with antlers that are too upright or have no brow tines. I'm not talking about where only one antler is malformed which is likely due to an injury, I'm talking about those bucks with a fair amount of "bone" on their head but the main beams grow up more like an antelope so that they have no spread. They just don't look as attractive to me. I hear what the article is saying about bucks dispersing from their birth place and then roaming again so that you are constantly getting an influx of new genes, but just because you can never totally control the gene pool doesn't mean you aren't having some effect. The degree of change you could realize would vary depending on how heavily you hunted and how large your land was.
 

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