For those attempting to practice Quality Deer Management or Big Buck Management, the topic of cull bucks have been a heated discussion over the years. There has been allot of misconceptions spread around with hunters and clubs, but times have changed. I have personally fell into the trap of attempting to cull bucks from the herd. As hunters attempting to be trophy hunters and deer managers, you occasionally go a few seasons without shooting bucks. Its nice to feel that you are improving your herd and be able to kill a crazy rack for your wall. But is that right?
I will quote a QDMA article entitled "Mis-Management of Bucks" by Lindsay Thomas Jr.
"1. Shooting management or cull bucks has not been shown to improve antler genetics unless you hunt inside a high fence. It is all but impossible to improve antler quality through selective removal of “inferior antler genetics” in free-roaming deer populations. Thus, I believe the justification that the majority of culling hunters are using is baseless.
2. Under the genuine application of culling, only a small fraction of deer managers are at the level of achievement with their deer program where culling is likely to have a benefit, or at least not cause harm to a potentially successful QDM program."
From this same article, it referenced the King Ranch and their 8 year attempt to research and cull bucks. They came up with this statement. “Over eight years of very intensive culling, we weren’t able to show any benefits in terms of improvement in antler quality.”
From research, many of the antler abnormalities we see are not genetic. Sure---some bucks will just not grow huge racks and yes some genetics problems may be spread. I have seen the occasional 4 year old spike but they are rare. Many of the antler abnormalities are actually a result of injury. I am told that the injury at times can be on the opposite side of the body. So if you are attempting to improve your herd's genetics (which is difficult if impossible to do) then shooting many of the booger bucks isn't actually improving your genetics.
From personal experience, most of the cull bucks I shot were later on found to be injured. I can also tell you that I now make a decision to a bucks if its what I want to do. If a buck has a cool rack, then I shoot it. We all know that you have to let a buck grow to at least 4.5 to see what it will be and I get a thrill out of shooting mature bucks.
Attached is cull buck that I shot a trip a few years ago. I was sitting in a shooting house during a rut, during a rain storm, and I managed to see 6 racked bucks in a 3 hour sit. Oh--it was also 70 plus degrees. I shot this buck thinking I was helping my buddy out. Did I help his herd----Probably not. I did managed to catch this boy coming across a shooting lane and had a fun time taking a funky racked buck.
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