Bottom line is if you want big deer you have to let them grow........Even the "cull" bucks will often turn out pretty nice if you let them reach maturity. We have found that shooting "cull" bucks before reaching maturity does not the reduce the number of these bucks you will see the next year. We now only shoot bucks that must be a minimum of 5 1/2 and it has made a huge difference.
Five years ago we took over a place in the Texas Hill Country that's not really known for huge deer. The place had been shot out and most of the bucks we did see were 2 1/2 with the occasional rare 3 year old. I was appointed "wildlife manager" of the group (6 of us on 2500 acres) and decided we were only going to shoot does the first 4 years. It was hard to do and ****ed some members off but they are sure glad now that we stuck with that plan. Last year the biggest buck we took off the place grossed just under 170".......and I think he was a 4 year old deer
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