It sucks but I've also seen the rewards of getting some of those "scrubby" bucks out of the way as well. Can't say it works all the time but there has been years around me (in ohio) where one or two of us will bite the bullet and take out the scrub bucks. Usually the 1-3yr olds that you know aren't gonna amount to much and want to curb those shitty genes. Just my two sense. Doing that around me has now produced some really good bucks.
Nice! Thanks for sharing. I love hearing different perspectives on deer movement. If you want to your windblown listen to Higgins Outdoors talk about Homecoming for Bucks. I have a friend that this has played out for the on the same date within hours.
We are on year two of a 500 acre property, We have protein on the ground year round and we feed corn August to April. We've done some timber cutting and we are focused on taking as many does as possible. We had some real shooters the first year but we are covered in young bucks right now. Not a lot of pressure from surrounding properties and only one high fence in the surrounding 2000-ish acres. I told my buddies that everyone of them needs to fill their doe tags and worry less about bucks, if we focus on this for 2-3 years we could likely have some decent bucks as our ratio will improve. Only time will tell but I have high hopes for 2024/25.