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Meat Buck?

That chubby one with the average horns, he still walking around.

I'd shoot him.
 
OK....so discussion around our family camp can center around what we should shoot for our (two deer) community sausage making bucks / does. We generally take two deer and I have sausage sticks and snack sticks made from all the meat except for the backstops and tenderloins which the shooter keeps.

Thus we all have a good amount of sausage for parties and such. And with our MN party hunting abilities......we all continue to hunt for a more "Trophy" racked buck (or any other deer that we select) to have individually butchered. It's been our camp policy for a few years now.

So.....what say you....do you take a big bodied deer like this shown.....which displays a rather small rack....or let him go in hopes of a better rack in the next seasons? I'd say this guy has little chance of growing a beautiful rack in the future......and should be killed for sausage. What do you think?

( dang, I cannot post the pic I want here. It's a large bodied buck - 8 pointer and pretty small basket type rack. Will try to get the proper extension on the pic)

View attachment 83958
I'm estimating this deer to be 2.5 or possibly 3.5 years. Meat?..... or let him grow?
Ha ha, you said sausage parties. Those definitely aren’t that fun and we’d leave if none of the ladies showed up. Back in my college days…
 
Ha ha, you said sausage parties. Those definitely aren’t that fun and we’d leave if none of the ladies showed up. Back in my college days…

Sounds like you have played the game: "Hide the sausage" a time or two....or have heard rumors. lmao.
 
As I have grown older (and wiser?) , my goals have changed from managing for age structure to having fun.

With decent deer numbers, my goals have changed. Two rules come to mind.

1. Taxpayer makes the rules.
2. Have fun and shoot a deer you are happy with.

I know your party has hunters with different goals. If you wish, let each hunter make the call if he sees this buck.

I struggle with the idea of culling a buck because of small antlers, in our area which often has severe winters. Antler growth can vary considerably with bad winters and or drought on light soils. I feel some hunters use this as an excuse as they fear others will criticize them for shooting a young buck.

If you remember, a few years back I shot a young buck while sitting in a two man stand with my adult daughter. I asked her if she wanted to shoot the buck and she said no. I decided to shoot it. It’s a great memory for me of shooting a deer while hunting with her versus Vice versa for many years. We seldom get the chance to share a stand anymore.

My advice, in short, let each hunter decide if he wants to shoot that buck. Don’t let anyone criticize another for their choice.
 
As I have grown older (and wiser?) , my goals have changed from managing for age structure to having fun.

With decent deer numbers, my goals have changed. Two rules come to mind.

1. Taxpayer makes the rules.
2. Have fun and shoot a deer you are happy with.

I know your party has hunters with different goals. If you wish, let each hunter make the call if he sees this buck.

I struggle with the idea of culling a buck because of small antlers, in our area which often has severe winters. Antler growth can vary considerably with bad winters and or drought on light soils. I feel some hunters use this as an excuse as they fear others will criticize them for shooting a young buck.

If you remember, a few years back I shot a young buck while sitting in a two man stand with my adult daughter. I asked her if she wanted to shoot the buck and she said no. I decided to shoot it. It’s a great memory for me of shooting a deer while hunting with her versus Vice versa for many years. We seldom get the chance to share a stand anymore.

My advice, in short, let each hunter decide if he wants to shoot that buck. Don’t let anyone criticize another for their choice.
I have to add that this was one of our easiest deer retrievals as it ran towards our house and fell about ten yards from our mowed lawn. Fifty yards from the garage where we hang, skin, and debone deer. Still part of the memory.
 
As I have grown older (and wiser?) , my goals have changed from managing for age structure to having fun.

With decent deer numbers, my goals have changed. Two rules come to mind.

1. Taxpayer makes the rules.
2. Have fun and shoot a deer you are happy with.

I know your party has hunters with different goals. If you wish, let each hunter make the call if he sees this buck.

I struggle with the idea of culling a buck because of small antlers, in our area which often has severe winters. Antler growth can vary considerably with bad winters and or drought on light soils. I feel some hunters use this as an excuse as they fear others will criticize them for shooting a young buck.

If you remember, a few years back I shot a young buck while sitting in a two man stand with my adult daughter. I asked her if she wanted to shoot the buck and she said no. I decided to shoot it. It’s a great memory for me of shooting a deer while hunting with her versus Vice versa for many years. We seldom get the chance to share a stand anymore.

My advice, in short, let each hunter decide if he wants to shoot that buck. Don’t let anyone criticize another for their choice.


Oh, our camp lets hunters chose any deer they want. This year "my" deer look fantastic. They have had good groceries all summer and all look healthy and many are chubby. Not sure I have ever had this good of growth season.....and deer seem plentiful. We have a two deer limit.....but nobody wants to shoot two. We all like to look at allot of deer and critters while on stand.

What I do is pay for the first two deer that are put into the community sausage effort. The hunter keeps the backstops and tenderloins and we all share in the sausage and snack sticks from those two deer. Then you are on your own for antlers, meat and butchering expenses. That plan has worked out pretty well for us....and allows some early action and not waiting too long to get some meat on the pole. We do have meat hunters and trophy hunters in our mix.

Some times in the past....everyone would pass on deer until none were using our plots in daytime hours. Then we would make poor choices on meat deer as the deer became nocturnal.
 
I have to add that this was one of our easiest deer retrievals as it ran towards our house and fell about ten yards from our mowed lawn. Fifty yards from the garage where we hang, skin, and debone deer. Still part of the memory.
You train your deer to run that direction, Bur?? 😁 🤣
 
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