which deer do I cull?

[tjdwillis]

The man who used to manage the deer on my uncles farm has recently passed away. He used to take me out stalking but since then myself and a cousin and my uncle have started doing it. There where alot of deer and weve been shooting anythink we can. Its all roe deer and weve shot quite a few since then, but there are still a good number of deer. my question is which deer should I be looking to cull. What are the signs of a deer that should be culled and which ones should i leave. any help would be much apreciated?

[russ91]

you want to be looking at the old and yound por bodyed buck's at the moment mate

[ferretman]

hi mate you want to be talking to a proper deer culler for this thay are the 1s that will tell you wot you need to no.thanks

[Ferretboy111]

Yeah id say, older- weaker animals. Or younger.

 

What rifle are you using just out of interest.

 

Alex

[tjdwillis]

im using a remmington sps .243. thanks for the replies.

[russ91]

enjoy the venison

[Teal]

Any injured, old, weak or poor young stock can be shot. As you build up your knowledge of what you have on your ground you can leave bucks with better than average heads to improve the stock over the years- it is a slow process though!

[CharlieT]

First thing to do is to spend a bit of time watching them and see if you can count how many your land and the surrounding area holds.

Then decide how many in theory the area will comfortably hold.

To control the numbers shoot the does as they are the ones that breed !. For quality keep the best prime bucks and cull the old ones who have done their job and any with poor heads or conformation.

Start off with say a 5 year plan and work from that.

Good luck and have some fun. In 5 years time with any luck you should have some nice heads to look forward to and even the chance of a gold medal in the future.

[v-max]

One of the key things to learn is the behavour & life style of the roe in your area. Like all wildlife & land it is seasonal & roe's behavour changes with the seasons. Roe a very fussy eaters & only eat the best growing food around them at time of year. As has been said old/young or poor/lame deer but you should be looking to get most of your cull from young bucks just now & not just grade them on there head. At this point & time there is big movment in the buck's & its quite tromatic for young bucks as mature bucks show very high agretion & will kill them. Richard Prior is one of the top roe deer men alive & his book the roe deer is very good & would be a wize buy for you or any stalker. There is also the type of ground you have & what it attracts ie mature/prime deer or old/young deer & you manage it on its merits on what it can offer.