This last season my brother (MNElkNut) and I were following a buck we named La'Carpetron Dookmarriot or Dook for short. We thought he was a solid 3 1/2 year old 130-140 typical 10 pointer. A very solid deer for our area and probably the upper end of the average "Shooter" for us. During the second weekend of gun season my brother ended up shooting dook. To our surprise, he turned out to be 123", a little short of our optimistic predictions of 140. He also weighed 155 field dressed which is a little light for our average 3 1/2 year old buck. Our taxidermist later informed us that his nose to eye length was too short to be a 3 1/2 and that dook was definitely a 2 1/2 year old buck. This left us wondering what he would have been next year or what his full potential would be? Any of you guys have some young bucks running around with awesome potential?
I do not think your taxidermist is right by looking at those pictures. That buck has bigger chest, shoulders and thicker from top to bottom than a 2 1/2 year old. If he is right and that is a 2 1/2 year old I would need a box of tissues if I were you guys
I am with you, my brother and I have seen hundreds of good bucks and we both thought he was 3 1/2 but when you see him in real life he is smaller in every way, his body was small (he only field dressed 155) his horns don't have a lot of mass either. Here is another picture of him, this is the first day I got pictures of him and he looks a lot smaller.
He is definitely a decepetive buck. His shoulders and body are what would be on a 3.5 year old. But he has the neck and face of a 2.5 year old. I would have said that he was a 3.5 year old. He might not have dressed out to the weight you thought because of the rut and the running he did. A lot of our bucks by the time gun season rolls around have lost anywhere from 20-50 lbs.
So if he was 10" bigger yet still 3.5 would it still be a shame he was killed? For me it would be difficult to be disappointed when the tape was put on his antlers.
I've never heard of anyone aging a buck based on the length of it's nose...especially that alone. He may well have been 2.5 so maybe the taxi is on to something?
Me and my brother try to shoot 120"+ bucks which in our area is usually 3 1/2. Lately we have been trying to add 120"+ and 3 1/2+ but obviously it didn't work on this deer. That being said, we both agree this deer had a ton of potential but we would both have shot him again and again. He came through pretty fast and was a do or die situation. So in the end we are both happy that we shot him and now we have a gauge to compare bucks in the future. This guy was #1 on our hitlist we just thought he was 130-140 and 3.5, but we are still really happy with him since we have been watching him all year.
I forget the exact numbers but it was something like 7 3/4" was the cut off for 3 1/2+ bucks, and this deer was 7-7 1/2. The taxidermist said after 3 1/2 its pretty much the same but it takes them until 3 1/2 to hit that number. He definitely sees plenty of bucks so I will take his word on it, besides the fact that he was small except for his belly in some pictures.
I started a poll on this deer from the picture I posted after the first three and I blurred out his rack and multiple people thought he was 1 1/2, heres the link: http://forums.bowhunting.com/whitetail-deer-hunting/62793-age-buck.html
Ha, yep, got me too as I also went with 3.5. I thought I recalled seeing a thread on that deer earlier in the year.
This may help some of you decide if he is 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 The first picture is of a few bucks but the two bucks on the right are Dook (middle) and a definite 2 1/2 year old buck (far right) The second is just a picture of the 2 1/2 8 for better reference (buck on the left) To me they look to be about the exact same body size which tells me dook is indeed 2 1/2, what are your guys' thoughts?
heres a 1.5 year old 5x5. he's a regular on my land. he's a little squirt and am looking forwards to seeing how he develops.
Here is a buck that was 2.5 years old last year and the last 2 pictures are him from 2014 as a 3 year old. I never heard any giant buck getting shot so I assume he is still alive.
Send in the jaw bone....simply measuring the length from nose to eye can mislead....after all not every human or animal's skeletal make up is consistent or identical at certain ages.
