Editor’s Note: Rodney Dyer of Deatsville, Alabama, an avid hunter, accomplished guide and wildlife biologist, now works with Hunter’s Specialties in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hunter’s Specialties is one of the few outdoor companies in the nation with a wildlife biologist on staff to give the company advice on how to manage and care for wildlife. More hunters are beginning to manage deer to produce older-age-class bucks. This week, Dyer will tell us at what age he believes bucks should be harvested.

If you have a well-balanced deer herd and light hunting pressure on private lands, start harvesting your bucks when they’re 4- and 5-years old. On public lands, deer are harvested at a much-younger age. On some public-hunting lands in my home state of Alabama, by the time a buck’s 3-years old, he’s already looking up in trees to spot hunters. He’s seen so many hunters in tree stands that he probably can tell you what company made your tree stand, and if he’s 4-years old or older, he probably can tell you the serial number of that tree stand.
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