Stanley wrote: How do you gauge genetics? Genetics in a deer herd are kind of a complex quantity rather than perceptible substance. Do you look for symmetry? Do you look for big body size? Do you look for number of points? Do you look for mass?
In areas I hunt you can see a difference in bucks. Some areas have bucks that tend to be wider, some areas heavier, some areas the bucks grow racks with more points, and some areas that bucks never really grow a decent rack. Is that genetics? Might be, I dunno. Could be nutrition, could be an over population, could be ageclass. There's a world of different answers that could be responsible for that. One thing for sure, bucks can and will vary from area to area. I really believe it's a combination of all the factors including chance. That's on a local level. But look at a larger picture. We don't grow the size of bucks you guys shoot in Wisconsin, or Illinois, or Iowa. We know there's a difference somewhere along the way, more than likely genetics.
Me personally, I don't worry about genetics. It's an uncontrollable factor. I don't have the time to chase whitetails in areas that grow the largest bucks, such as Wisconsin, Illinois, or Iowa, where I think genetics make the difference. But even still, I bet these areas will have the same tendencies where the bucks vary in size from area to area (as Stanley said), the same as it does here local. And I believe this is due to a variety of reasons, not just genetics. Judging genetics seems easy on a larger scale looking at geographical areas as opposed to variations in the local deer herd from farm to farm.
What I look for, being a local hunter, is age class, hunter pressure (and the quality of hunters). Food here is everywhere. It really doesn't matter to me if the bucks grow wide racks, lots of points, or heavier racks (although I really like mass). I think most all bucks, if allowed to age will grow a unique rack and achieve what I think is a trophy. Separating typical from non typical in rack formation is ridiculous as far as quality of a trophy is concerned in my opinion.