I'm not starting a "should I cull bucks, just this buck, all bucks, everywhere a buck buck"

Take a look at just these couple vids. Now these are young healthy deer, rack kinda goofy right now but they are going to be strong deer most likely.
Do you think their rack will come to shape in something besides the one horn on one side. Ever ?
These deer are young and could possibly live to be over 6 years old (maybe) would age help?

May turn out like turkey necks buck...never no...imo jacked up racks can still be trophies

Ive never seen one that is substantially screwed up on one side ever be anything but year after year.

Would you consider this a cull? He was six+ and 215lbs? That Right side had 5.5” bases and 191/2” beam length. I consider him to be a trophy and so did everyone else who was trying to get him Killed.

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That trail pic was year before

If you want to kill them then kill them. Of course killing them won’t guarantee you won’t have more like them.

I wish I could cull one like that every year Rob! Heck of a deer!

Absolutely he is a cull. Any buck 6+ and 200lb+ is always a cull for me regardless what his antlers look like.

Ha, I knew it

Was just interested if some of these young bucks might grow something other than a straight horn on that side. I'm with ya, I think it'll be that way for his life but I don't know, just wondering what ya think.

Gave this Ol' boy a barrel a few weeks ago. Shame he just had a spike on one side but oh well...

The real questions are:

1. Is there room n my freezer?
2. Will I eat it?

Could turn into what I put down yesterday a old gnarly heavy freak. It’s very unique and I actually like that over clean even these days.

🤔.........😄


It was a nice 'en 👍

If it’s what most antler deformations are,a damaged pedicle,then no. The base of his skull is all jacked up and that’s what promotes the funky antler.

Shooting this deer is not going to improve you herds genetics but will free up some available food which may in turn help out.

I have shot a couple of 200 pound, 4+ year old "culls" like that on our property over the years. They were culls because i thought they were whipping everything else's ass and I felt like they were keeping other good bucks off our place- not because i thought i was helping the genetic pool on that land. Oh, and their was a lot of cube steak and jerky involved!!

A pedical injury will almost always be the same year after year. A leg injury that heals, well that could change from one year to another. Those being young deer, could just be genetics. A friend of mines son killed a spike that stunk really bad, I mean rutted up and both of his spikes had blood around the bases like he had been fighting. Deer have different personalities.

Where I hunt in central alabama nearly every buck is like that. It has to be genetics because surely not all of them are getting injured. However this is kind of a good thing because it adds some character to the racks.

Big deer with a slick side can easily kill other deer. I generally kill every one that I can, not because it's genetic, but because I think it helps reduce stress on the other deer.

And they taste good.

Those are some fine lookin deer gentleman, congrads. My point was not to say these are cull deer or a rack that aint worth having, I too like the character.

I've seen more young deer with these type racks this year than I have the 3.5 - 4 years I've hunted my land. Now I know a lot of that has to do with the amount of cams I have, the amount of days I hunted and the fact that I was out there during the rut which all factored in to seeing more bucks. I just noticed it more on my younger deer than ever before, mostly 2 year olds who are really getting started and trying to be somebody. My thought was that he'd grow out of it cause I saw a good bit of them. I understand the pedical injury, doesn't it usually affect the opposite horn ? I killed a monster in Tuskegee whose right leg had a big ball at the joint and his left horn was all jacked up, he was an old deer, thats when I first learned about this from GW/Ranger who I knew pretty good down there.

Seems like there was a bumper crop of SOUS bucks this year on my lease and apparently in a lot of other places too. I had one camera with 3 of them in the same pic. I treat them like any other buck in the woods. They'll get a pass until they are 4.5. or older.