Originally posted by Mailman
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We address it on our place in a little different fashion. I am by no means a biologist, and I will never claim to be.
Roy Hindes once told me on a track, which by the way, those are no fun for the shooter, but they are really a blast to experience. His dogs are out of this world. Anyways I have been with him on 4 or 5 tracks and I asked him last time I was with him, about culling. As you all know, his ranch produces monsters, and they really know what they are doing.
His quote to me was, "If you let him walk, you better like him... You'll see him again!!!" Meaning, that deer is going to breed and he will pass those traits on, that is a fact. You as the manager of your land have to decide what lives and what doesn't. What traits don't you like, what traits do you like? What are you going to do to promote those traits that you like?
Another point to consider is you can't kill all your 3.5 year old deer. On our place the 8 point gene is the dominant gene. At 3.5 most of our deer are 8 point frames, and there are some with 9 and 10 point frames. Those with 9 and 10 get a pass, we will not shoot them. For example if you have (12) 3.5 year old 8 points. Some are naturally going to be inferior, and those are the ones that we concentrate on killing. We have a list of traits that we hate at our place.
1.) Short Brows, Unless those bucks have exceptional tine length they will get whacked. If everything else is average and they have short brows, they die.
2.) Short G3's / Crab Claw's, those deer that look like they have Crab Pincher's at the end of their racks get smacked. We always have 2 or 3 deer every year that will have decent brows, 8 inch or so G2's, and then they will throw a 3 inch G3 in the mix, for whatever reason they always look the same, so we kill them.
3.) Basket Racks - Unless they have super potential, and I mean really long tines, they will get whacked. I am talking about deer with wrap around beams, and about a 12 to 14 inch spread. They look ugly, and I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but these deer never get better on our place. We let one walk, and gave him 2 more years to develop, and he looked exactly the same 2 years later. Just a little bigger version of the ugly basket racked deer from 2 years before.
Just some thoughts on how we try do it, and for the most part we are pretty successful. One thing that has really helped our program is technology. Everyone has a video camera or a good quality digital camera, so if they aren't certain they can bring in video or pictures for approval. It never hurts to ask someone elses opinion, and that helps to eliminate mistakes.
Roy Hindes once told me on a track, which by the way, those are no fun for the shooter, but they are really a blast to experience. His dogs are out of this world. Anyways I have been with him on 4 or 5 tracks and I asked him last time I was with him, about culling. As you all know, his ranch produces monsters, and they really know what they are doing.
His quote to me was, "If you let him walk, you better like him... You'll see him again!!!" Meaning, that deer is going to breed and he will pass those traits on, that is a fact. You as the manager of your land have to decide what lives and what doesn't. What traits don't you like, what traits do you like? What are you going to do to promote those traits that you like?
Another point to consider is you can't kill all your 3.5 year old deer. On our place the 8 point gene is the dominant gene. At 3.5 most of our deer are 8 point frames, and there are some with 9 and 10 point frames. Those with 9 and 10 get a pass, we will not shoot them. For example if you have (12) 3.5 year old 8 points. Some are naturally going to be inferior, and those are the ones that we concentrate on killing. We have a list of traits that we hate at our place.
1.) Short Brows, Unless those bucks have exceptional tine length they will get whacked. If everything else is average and they have short brows, they die.
2.) Short G3's / Crab Claw's, those deer that look like they have Crab Pincher's at the end of their racks get smacked. We always have 2 or 3 deer every year that will have decent brows, 8 inch or so G2's, and then they will throw a 3 inch G3 in the mix, for whatever reason they always look the same, so we kill them.
3.) Basket Racks - Unless they have super potential, and I mean really long tines, they will get whacked. I am talking about deer with wrap around beams, and about a 12 to 14 inch spread. They look ugly, and I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but these deer never get better on our place. We let one walk, and gave him 2 more years to develop, and he looked exactly the same 2 years later. Just a little bigger version of the ugly basket racked deer from 2 years before.
Just some thoughts on how we try do it, and for the most part we are pretty successful. One thing that has really helped our program is technology. Everyone has a video camera or a good quality digital camera, so if they aren't certain they can bring in video or pictures for approval. It never hurts to ask someone elses opinion, and that helps to eliminate mistakes.
SHow us some deer off your place.
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