Oh don't doubt I loose deer every year. Typically on the 100 acres of ours, we have up to 15-20 "legal" bucks by Aug/Sept. By end of Sept, sometimes just before bow, the biggest disappear. Sometimes I see them at times again. Sometimes never again that I"m aware of.
Last year we kept 4 bucks, 10 points each, lowest scoring around 125, best around 140, and they stayed around all year. A friend hunts half a mile away would see some of them now and then, but for the most part we would see them almost every day.
I totally agree with him on size needed to manage, but I can say this, we've seen what happens when any buck is legal around here. And I've seen what happens with the 13 inch rule in effect plus a little education.
probably does not hurt that I have at times up to 8 food plots, and have protein out almost year around and some feeders stashed in spots year round.
I can promise that we have not wasted our time here. OTOH we very well may not have netted the largest that "we" have produced either... and I'm fine with that. As long as the few folks that hunt, are not killing promising bucks, and are killing culls, who gets the biggest one matters not to me.
The funny thing that my cameras show almost every year, that its much more common to find a 4-6 year old pure trash buck show up for 2-3 days or a week, and play hell realizing he is around quick enough to kill him. Its almost unseen, to see a mucho buck show up for a day or three or a week.
Hence I'm still and generally alwyas have been, much more concerned with killing the trash, and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.
Having shot a buck of almost 160 inches in 130 inch hill country region last fall, sometimes it works. I was not hunting that buck. Had not seen him in 2 years. Was just trying to kill 2 culls every fall and some does. And just be patient. I was lucky, but it worked.
High fences, I don't give a flip what anyone says, I'd be MUCH more into a high fence to keep trash out, than to keep the best in. Trash can ruin an effort really really quickly IMHO. If I loose one of my best bucks, thats not so bad as I have other good genetics to breed.
We had a bad gene in Llano once... yeah, land of the dinks.... it was no brow tines.... nice bucks for the area with nothing. It took us about 5 years of shooting every one we saw on the spot, and then another few years, before we then went almost 4 years IIRC before shooting another. But let one get into the pile, breed a few does, and have to get his offspring old enough to realize they are the same, and cull, they too likely have had a chance to breed and off we go again.
No matter what anyone says, letting the big ones go and even die of old age, while shooting trash, ain't going to hurt anything, and there is NO way it can't help. No matter what years of college might say.
