This discussion of "management bucks" is a great place to once again reiterate a "truism" about deer management, and that is you cannot stockpile mature bucks. I wish I knew the reasons this is true, but I don't. However, I've seen example after example of the fact it's true. Property after property, even after years of management and photo censuses, I see the same thing, 10-12% of the total buck population is mature. Why is it that no matter how many 3 1/2s hunters pass up, the percentage of mature bucks doesn't keep climbing? I do not know the answer. Perhaps mature bucks are killing each other. Perhaps social pressures drive lesser dominant bucks away. Perhaps neighbors are killing them (the least likely scenario). I don't know the answer. All I know is I run photo censuses on larger properties for years and the percentage of the buck population that is mature hardly budges. This year I had a club set the all-time record - for any census I've conducted in the state of TN - for the percentage of the buck population that is mature, and it was only right around 15%, and that was on a very large club (thousands of acres).