re: Deer Age? Choot em?

“He was never going to be bigger than a spike”
“If I don’t kill ‘em the neighbors will”
“Damned dogs have turned them nocturnal”
New for 2024: “CWD infects old deer so you have to shoot ‘em young”

I see 2.5 year old deer (really 2 yo in Sep) except the spike which may be 1.5.

Let them all walk. Numerous studies have been done on whether genetics can be successfully managed on <1000 acre tracts and they cannot.

Another consideration is if your neighboring land owners are managing….or not. If those are only bucks that you have pics of, I’d guess they are shooting 2.5 yo bucks.

In that case, that’s what the population will largely consist of every year unless any sneak by and don’t get killed.

It’s a tough putt, but if you can get adjoining landowners to cooperate and manage to a similar standard, you can grow mature bucks, ie 4.5 yo or older. If your neighbors are brown it’s down, it just ain’t gonna happen.

QDMA has some good stuff on COOP’s. I’m in SW MS too, 400 acres with large adjoining landowners and thankfully we manage to similar standards and have had good success with growing mature bucks.

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Maybee im getting old but 150 acreas in south Mississippi is not going to get you far in terms of management. Have a good time, relax and shoot what you want.

Just my opinion.

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I disagree....1. get sunlight on the floor and feed year round with summer plots and supplemental feeding.

2. Talk to your neighbors and agree on a certain age (unless its a kid shooting).

3. Kill Doe's.....on your 150 acres I'd bet you have too many deer that will deplete the resources for the bucks. With 150 acres, you should kill 6 doe's. Put excluders out in the food plots to get a more accurate assessment on your herd.

If you want bigger bucks, you MUST maintain a healthy number of deer.

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2. Talk to your neighbors and agree on a certain age (unless its a kid shooting

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Biggest obstacle for most.

First deer 1 1/2, probably same for the spike. Leave them alone, shoot does instead.

The rest between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2. Leave alone. You will never shoot big deer if you don't let the young ones walk. You can say another hunter will kill; they will never be anything etc... It's all wrong.

Age is the only thing that will show you what you have, and what the potential is of the property. I would shoot older deer and does. If they have swayed back, bellies hanging, defined brisket, chances are they are old enough. To tell the true age you need the teeth, you won't get the real age without it.

You have deer, so that's the good news. To tell what you really have just takes time.

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but how do you keep track of them from year to year? Like how did you know that it wasthe same deer?

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You don't have to. MS State and Texas A&M have done the work for you. The odds of a wild ranging spike being a spike at 2.5 are slim to none.

Appreciate the info fellas, letting these guys walk sounds like a good plan. Will try and get in touch with neighbors. One side is a Weyerhaeuser lease, which I am trying to buy, and the west side borders a high fence. If we can get what we want around there this will wind up being about 400 acres, but may wind up being further down the road.

Anyone have a link to the studies showing that a spike won’t be a spike forever? Need to send that to some folks

LINK

Look at this article. It was one of the best I've seen, documented deer for 12 1/2 years. Pretty amazing actually.

Not sure who led the charge on that .