re: “That deer was on the decline”

These terminology problems all started from the Texas ranches on hunting shows. Sure when you have 1,000s of acres and millions of dollars to put into your herd you can cull deer, wait them out to see how they age, etc. But then Jim bob watches that Wednesday night and goes to Deer camp on the weekend and acts like that can be done on a 200 acre lease.

I will say though, and I laughed when I saw it, my father in law has a cull lineage on his new 200 acres. He has a 2.5 year old and a 1.5 year old buck that both have the same fork on the right side, while the other side is a normal 3 or 4 points. But that's extremely extremely rare, I wish I had a pic to post of the two deer.

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Even sw la piney woods public land bucks can get pretty good with a little age.

Maybe 160-170 live weight. I doubt there's much difference in weight between 4.5 and 6.5. Deer just don't get very big.

There's the point I'm making. I'm not going to argue against antler production. I know that's better in older deer But for the guys like me that aren't concerned with antlers, there's no difference in taking a 4.5 and a 6.5.

Hell, at 4.5, you are still talking about a deer at 90% of it's antler potential. And that's according to research. So maybe he's not on the decline, but he's not going to get much bigger either. If 130" is max, you are talking about a 117" deer at 4.5 based on those numbers.

That’s a totally different topic on if you prefer to kill mature deer or not. There are a lot of places that if you don’t shoot a deer until he is 5+ you will never kill one.

I’m just saying a deer living long enough to reach the antler decline stage in life is a lot more rare than some people think.

Countless of times I have talked with someone that killed a 6pt or 7pt with somewhat heavy horns and they say, “this deer was on the decline”.

quote:

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Most hunting leases in fairly high pressured areas of Louisiana and Mississippi usually kill mostly 3-4 yr old

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id be willing to bet more 2 year olds are getting mowed down than 3s and 4s. now then, the amt of 2yo that are called 3-4, well thats a different story.

i would agree and say the ole decline tail is wayyyyyyyyyyy over used. and as other mentioned the famous "cull buck"

Got full of myself years ago and made that comment about a mature buck I killed to my dad. He didn’t tear me down but I knew he didn’t buy my BS. Humbled me without embarrassing.

I can’t age deer on the hoof.

There are 3 different bucks I see in the woods.

“There’s a doe. Oh shite it has horns” That’s a young buck

“Oh there’s a deer! Damn it’s built like a buck” 2-3 ye old buck

“Damn that a big bodied deer! Bet it weighs 300” Mature 4+ yr old buck




That’s how I age deer

That’s just damage while in velvet. Why is that cull?

Not sure which one you're talking about but same answer for both: Neither had 8 points after their 2nd set of antlers. One was 5, and the other 6.

The decline is real.