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Removing culls from a farm

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Field of Dreams

Member
Im facing the daunting task of removing the crapper bucks off a 400 acre farm in order to keep some good genetic 3 year olds around. Im sure you guys have dealt with this so I was wondering how some of have dealt with this in the past. The challenge is getting enough guys willing to take them out and burn a tag. I can tag one every year, but Im starting to realize its not even going to come close to making enough of a difference. Im thinking it would take removing 6-8 bucks per year, maybe more to really do it right. My farm stretches out on a river and is partly in Illinois and partly in IN so I do have more than one tag per year to use on the farm.
 
Field of Dreams said:
Im facing the daunting task of removing the crapper bucks off a 400 acre farm in order to keep some good genetic 3 year olds around. Im sure you guys have dealt with this so I was wondering how some of have dealt with this in the past. The challenge is getting enough guys willing to take them out and burn a tag. I can tag one every year, but Im starting to realize its not even going to come close to making enough of a difference. Im thinking it would take removing 6-8 bucks per year, maybe more to really do it right. My farm stretches out on a river and is partly in Illinois and partly in IN so I do have more than one tag per year to use on the farm.
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Good opportunity to “take new hunters”
 
We do this EVERY YEAR! Youth hunters & buddies. I sit with em in blinds usually. I have a few folks I trust 100% too. I will also use my tags on them. They have to go!!! Couple during youth, couple during bow & any remaining - later season. It’s a blast!! Glad to see folks doing this. It’s absolutely critical. I spent like 8 nights hunting a 100” 5 year old a pile of years back. Rewarding & pays off big time on a management level.
 
Skip how many bucks do you think you typically remove on any given year on a 400 acre farm? Youth season is a really good idea. Its tough to expect buddies to continually use their tag on a 100" deer year in and year out isn't it? Do you reward them with taking a good deer some where along the lines? All this puts that much more pressure on the farm also which is a really big draw back for me. But I guess it can't be helped.
 
Field of Dreams said:
Skip how many bucks do you think you typically remove on any given year on a 400 acre farm? Youth season is a really good idea. Its tough to expect buddies to continually use their tag on a 100" deer year in and year out isn't it? Do you reward them with taking a good deer some where along the lines? All this puts that much more pressure on the farm also which is a really big draw back for me. But I guess it can't be helped.
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Great ? !!!!!!!
If I owned “400 acres” & I had just bought it and it was NOT “kept up with in past” …. I’m gonna guess 4-10. 10 is the most I’ve pry ever seen on that size. After we got on top of things…. 2-4 a year is pretty normal.
I bought a large farm where they top ended it for years and let junk go. This was a decade ago. I let countless buddies I trust hunt there. & countless youth hunters. & used my tags. I think we got like 17 bucks off there. 80” to 150”. People were excited and happy to shoot the bucks. I did make sure to take people who loved the hunt & the buck. I was the one that put my tag on the lowest scoring bucks if they “really bad”. & I’m totally ok with it if I didn’t find anyone else to. But- I’ve had no issue finding “right people” to shoot ‘em.
& now…. Thanks to intensive breeding - we have my kids & countless nephews & buddy’s kids too.
All I’ll say is, IMO- make a list of bucks that “it’s time” & hunt for them until u tagged most or all of them. We’ve had a few seasons where 100% of the list got shot. Others were a few snuck by. But not many.
Balancing pressure & hunting them at right time & way is critical. We usually hunt them when we know their patterns. Ideal scenario is getting shot the 1st time u try for them. Happens a lot but obviously no guarantees in hunting!
 
tall@wide said:
If you have a lot of culls, it probably means the neighboring farms are killing the good, young genetic bucks and not killing the low scoring culls. I dealt with this in Illinois. I had a DNR buddy bring his daughters over to my farm and try to work on a couple of identified culls. It worked well.
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Im sure this could be true to some degree as we have lost some good young deer, but for the most part I take the blame for not making it enough of a priority. Ive been concerned about putting pressure on the farm and save the culling for the last 3-4 days of season and you know how that goes...
 
Field of Dreams said:
Im sure this could be true to some degree as we have lost some good young deer, but for the most part I take the blame for not making it enough of a priority. Ive been concerned about putting pressure on the farm and save the culling for the last 3-4 days of season and you know how that goes...
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Great topic and questions. I too, have this issue and have small farms that I own. There is no way I "keep" deer on my farms but they have been manipulated to be the best habitat in the areas. I worry about pressure trying to kill the culls on the farms while educating the ones I would like to keep alive or actually have the vets, friends and family get the ones that anyone would would truly like to tag. I have been the only one to target these "cull" bucks as I have a better schedule to get after them when conditions make for best hunting opportunity without educating other deer.

I've had two cull bucks that were so tough to hunt. They just seemed to be the luckiest bucks/cat with nine lives type deal. One stayed nocturnal until 6.5. He was all over the farm but never during daylight. He ran so many bucks off the property that had great potential. By the end of the year he was broken down to main beams and partial points. Killed him and the following 3 years we were able to take some mature deer off of this farm. However, I believe an offspring of his developed into a bully with huge body and and115" rack with the same nocturnal tendencies. He was finally killed at 7.5 yrs. He ran off and busted up two with great potential. We never had a mature deer on that farm again until he was dead.

Killing cull bucks and does if needed always presents a dilemma to me as I fear blowing up the small properties on deer recovery of culls and does that will ruin the hunting for the bucks one really wants to tag. When we had enough deer around and needed to take does we never took them until the late season for this very reason. Its a damn me if I do, damn me if I don't, as the culls either run the other bucks off the properties or we educate the deer we really want to take to be wary of our properties.
 
@bwese Spot on. I also worry about taking does for the same reason. They’re all going run into the sanctuary.

A discussion of how to take cull bucks and does vs balance of pressure is worthy of a discussion in of itself.
 
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Field of Dreams said:
Im sure this could be true to some degree as we have lost some good young deer, but for the most part I take the blame for not making it enough of a priority. Ive been concerned about putting pressure on the farm and save the culling for the last 3-4 days of season and you know how that goes...
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IMO- first shot available on those BUCKS…. Take em!!!! It won’t hurt farm. It will HELP - very fast. Other bucks will move in.
I would be different with does. Does will hurt if u do it too much & At wrong time.
But on bucks that need to go…. They are only gonna give u a shot a handful of times. The sooner they are gone- the faster/better the farm will get. It’s a no brainer. Trust me on this one!!! & lemme put it to guys this way,…. If i could magically shoot all of them from youth opener to October 15 - be a magic situation. That’s IDEAL!!!!!!! & I don’t care how much noise or commotion I made shooting that buck - tracking him & dragging out…. When he’s gone & farm settles for 3-4 days- your farm is on track to get better!!! Remove the bullies - I’ve seen new bucks move in and “take their places” or major shifts in area…. In matter of couple weeks.
 
Sligh1 said:
IMO- first shot available on those BUCKS…. Take em!!!! It won’t hurt farm. It will HELP - very fast. Other bucks will move in.
I would be different with does. Does will hurt if u do it too much & At wrong time.
But on bucks that need to go…. They are only gonna give u a shot a handful of times. The sooner they are gone- the faster/better the farm will get. It’s a no brainer. Trust me on this one!!! & lemme put it to guys this way,…. If i could magically shoot all of them from youth opener to October 15 - be a magic situation. That’s IDEAL!!!!!!! & I don’t care how much noise or commotion I made shooting that buck - tracking him & dragging out…. When he’s gone & farm settles for 3-4 days- your farm is on track to get better!!! Remove the bullies - I’ve seen new bucks move in and “take their places” or major shifts in area…. In matter of couple weeks.
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Great post Sligh. I think its exactly what needs to be done on our place and I agree the sooner the better. Im going to try and get a couple of the worst culprits taken during youth if possible.
Ive been studying trail cam pics and especially video to see who are the worst bullies and there is always a couple deer that take being a bully to a whole different level and those are the ones were going to concentrate on first.
Thanks for the response.
 
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