Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Now.... About all Those 130 Class Whitetails Running Around.....

The deer above < 6 pt shows why stupid 4 pt restrictions are so ignorant. That buck was a trophy and was a good kill here it wouldn't have been legal Mo. game and fish suck balls let the hunter decide!!!!!!!!

I used to quail hunt a lot back when we had quail and I could still walk good. I have really enjoyed seeing the quail that you have down there, along with the other wildlife. Randy and I damn near wore the hinges out on your back door watching for deer. I don't think we ever got through a breakfast without one of us peeking out the back door to see if anything had shown. miles

Morning Miles,I am guilty of looking out my back door morning and evening to see what shows up to, I am lucky to have the wildlife traffic close to the house.

The Quail look really good again this year we have a higher covey count than last year, we just need to get the deer hunting over with then we can turn the dogs loose and Quail hunt.

That does not mean I don't like to hunt deer, and everything else we hunt. Grin !

Rio7

Put me down in the shoot what ever makes you happy column. I agree that if you take more than a couple of 120 plus point bucks you are pretty lucky if you hunt in the east on small farms and public land. I find the QDMA types that either own/work at a location where there is a large amount of acreage where basically they farm deer to be a bit hard to take when they cop an attitude about shooting smaller bucks. I also note that most of these guys tend to let slip that they seem to shoot a lot of smaller deer but act like its a chore for them and they have to do it like killing rats. Ive seen some pretty decent deer pictures and then the guy gives it the old "well I had to shoot him he was a cull buck". I always sort of call BS on that. I always wonder what their attitude would be if they only got to spend 2-5 days in the woods and hunted a 100 acre tract where you know if you didn't shoot the buck as soon as he crossed over to the neighbors farm he was down. Most of the 20 or so deer I have killed have been 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 year old bucks and does with the bucks probably averaging 90 -110 score. I did get lucky a bout 4-5 years ago and had a really nice 10 pt walk out that using the B&C scoring chart grossed 156. I figure he's my once in a lifetime buck, but who knows.

Good Morning Bangeye, There are a lot of things that make a deer a cull,stunted growth,injured,sick,starving from worn out teeth,antler growing into their eye or head,tumors,

at one time or another I have seen all of the above problems and to many more to list. I say again look at the whole deer not just the antlers. antlers are replaced every year, my 2 cents worth. Rio7

One other aspect I will ask the wildlife biologists on here to comment on : Take away hunting mortality what would be the chances of a 1 1/2 year old deer living over 4 more winters in a normal free range situation not a place where there are corn feeders, winter food plots and mineral blocks abundant but instead surviving on mast, browse and what ag crop predadation opportunities they can find. I would guess that adult mortality due to winter kill, coyotes, wolves, dogs automobiles, disease, worms, injury, etc. to be fairly high depending on location but probably in the 15% to maybe 30% range annually. So out of 100 yearling bucks probably less than 30- 40 would make it to 5 1/2 years with no hunting losses at all would that be a fair guess?

The second part of the question is out of the survivors how many would ever make it to 140-150 class bucks based on health issues, nutrition limitations, and just plain genetics 20%-30% ??? thats 10-12 deer out of the original 100 1 1/2 years bucks. So based on the above Im not sure that every time somebody shoots a 2 1/2-3 1/2 year old buck that its very smart to assume that they killed a potential boone and crocket trophy. They most likely killed a deer that would have never reached trophy status at all.

You have to have the genetics to start with to get trophy deer, and then age. Age will help all bucks look better but they still may not get in that 140-150 range that you were talking about. I do not control enough land to really make a difference, but by shooting the sure enough culls, I am hurting nothing. I also feel like I am leaving the woods a better place. miles

JG has a bunch of nice culls, doesnt he. Darn those whitetail racked mulies.

Enough

Id like to know what that hog weighed.

I had my head where the sun don't shine......just realized this thread title says "whitetail"........sorry.

Couldnt give a rats ass.

Food for the freezer. Horns for the wall is a bonus.

Dont be sorry, please. It was great seeing those big mature muley pics, JG.

I was only referring to the fact so many huge west Texas muleys miss having the back forks. OTOH, they usually have the 5th point (brow tine).

I'm not sure enough to argue it and I don't know if it applies everywhere but around here, there are more big deer than ever. The biggest deer I had ever killed 15 years ago isn't even in my top ten anymore. In the last five years me, my dad, and my nephew have all killed deer bigger than 140 and we're not trophy hunters. We just see lots more big deer than we used to. And judging by the pics I see, so does everyone else around here.

This buck didn't score very well. Only 8 points, low tines, and not a lot of spread kept it below 120". It was 4 years old.

Moosemike t hats what I'm talking about that there's a nice deer I dont care who you are.

Just wow, what a porker, I hope you were close to the truck.

Thanks.

Your deer is another example of how stupid our "13 inch inside spread rule" is. Problem is that I can't offer a better alternative since most hunters can't age a deer.

It ain't just Texas. Here is a Montana Mule Deer that could pass for a Whitetail. But he is damn near perfectly symmetrical....
Scored Typical, he loses only one inch.