Personally, I think the easiest thing to do is to let bucks go to 3 years of age. At that time if they are 8 points or less or have other obvious genetic deficiencies you take them out of the herd. There is obviously lots of arguments and some complicated math involved, but to keep it simple, kill these types of bucks as "culls" and keep your buck to doe ration equal and no greater than 1 to 1.5 and you should be on your way to a good sound management philosophy at least on the harvesting side of the equation.

Do this and you may find yourself with three and four-year-old deer with tall racks and 12-inch spreads that are protected under the 13-inch rule. The rule was designed to protect the best of the younger deer, rather than older ones.

Just think about it. Common sense dictates that with ANYTHING, the best time to make management decisions are in the early stages of a process, rather than later when results can no longer be impacted.

Or do you really believe it's best to wait until your child reaches the 6th Grade to find out if they can read?

I went to a presentation on Oct. 5, given by TPWD/Ryan Reitz of the Kerr WMA. The data presented were very similar to Ranchman's (and other) data. I have that data and can make it availably to anyone who wants a copy of it.

The conclusion I came away with is this: If a buck is 1.5 years of age or older and is a spike (one or two unbranched antlers), you should cull it to improve the genetics of the herd. Same with 3-5 points with one or no brow tines. Cull early, cull often if the numbers/ratios permit.

This is what we, the same group of hunters, have been doing on our lease for the last 10+ years and our deer herd has greatly improved. Spike numbers are way down and overall antler mass/points has increased. The credit for this management goes to our land owner, a biologist himself...