Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 21:25:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: HONEYCUTT
Subject: deer in chatham–the “best” and the “inferior”
In reading posts over the last few days, again I saw it written how the hunters take the “best” bucks and leave the weaker inferior bucks to do the breeding. This is simply not accurate.
It must be said that the best strongest dominant buck in Chatham County was once a thin bodied young buck. If most of us had seen that little deer we might have called him weak and inferior but given 4 or 5 years he becomes the boss.
Shooting older aged bucks is the goal of many hunters and in that quest many young immature bucks are seen and passed up. Some of these little deer are the high quality bucks of the future. If given a few years we would not be able to look at these young bucks and see any difference between the “best” and “worst” really. If you judge an animal only by it’s antlers as to it’s being “better” you miss a whole genetic menu of more important traits. It’s like judging people on good looks without reguard to talent – or many other things. Just because a hunter takes a large antlered deer it does not mean he/she got the “best”. He/She may have taken an older buck that wasn’t even an active breeder.
Truth is we as hunters are happy with large antlers even when they come on a smaller lighter weight body.
I run a taxidermy shop and one of the biggest racked bucks in the shop this year came off of a 4 year old buck which had a very small body. Now I would say he was an “inferior” buck due to poor body developement but then I would be ignoring all of those other genetic traits that are just not visable. Just my thoughts
Aaron Honeycutt