I don't seem to get many bucks in my area, even though there isn't much hunting pressure, though there is the odd wolf. However, this is the biggest buck I've had on camera, what would be your age guess? I would guess 3 1/2 maybe 4 1/2, but I'm not the best at this.
Hard to say with those pictures. You need a good side profile picture for starters. Not a 1/4 to picture but 100% broadside. You also have to think of what area of the country you are in. That plays a big roll in body size and rack size. Where I hunt just based off the rack since I can't really see his body good enough that deer would be at least 3.5. They don't have the food they need to grow head gear like that by age 2.5.
Thanks for the reply!. Sorry I should have been more specific. Hopefully these side pictures do a little more justice. These pictures are from Central Ontario basically on the shore of Georgian Bay In mixed-woods, far from any real agriculture. I want to hold out for a 'mature deer' if possible having cut my teeth in recent years and am trying to see how this buck would add up, being the largest I have had on camera. He also seems to use the property frequently throughout the year, though always on camera at night.
I am in Ontario too, the southern shore of Georgian Bay near Collingwood. Ontario can and does grow some monster bucks. I used to think the same way you do, but the group that I hunt with has produced several Big, Mature bucks have been taken over the past 10 years. I've attached some pictures, first 2 pictures are the same deer 190" non-typical (FROW). The 3rd was taken at a party, the 190" & another 176" buck. // TrackSoup
Which deer are you referring to? The ones track soup posted look gigantic to me! Or am I missing sarcasm? haha.
Thwack He looks to be 3.5 in those pictures from the looks of it. Should be 4.5 this fall. If you had an easy winter and he has the genetics he could pack on another 20"+ this year. I had two bucks on camera last year that had put on 25"+ from 2014.
I would ask what else you get for smaller bucks, and how many of them get killed. Area I hunt has typically put more importance on getting meat, rather than trophys so they shoot anything with antlers. Hard to grow a big buck when they keep killing them as forks.
This is more or less part of my question as I seem to be able to grow them until this size (2 1/2 I guess?) and then they more or less disappear. However noone else surrounding the property hunts as far as I know (although that only covers a couple thousand acres) other than maybe the odd person that hunts a small 100 acre section of crown land about a KM away, although I have never known anyone to hunt that but me. So I'm wondering, are my bucks heading elsewhere upon maturity? If so any thoughts on why? I try my best to keep a low profile on the property, only heading back into the woods I hunt when necessary to change camera batteries and pour out mineral-using scent control when I do.
Looks like you have a good selection of young bucks. I'm guessing that you need something to keep the big bucks hanging around. The best thing that I've seen to keep bucks around is.......... does. What food sources do you have? With a thousand acres+ around there must be cover, bedding areas and food sources so I'd say that you need to get out and move around a bit and find out where they are hanging out. What fun!
I wish I had access to all that land, but the surrounding properties are owned by anti-hunters, who own vast tracts of land which is why there is no hunting pressure, but also why I can't hunt them. That leaves me with 80 acres within this area and a small parcel of crown land ( +/- 100 acres) consisting mostly of an old beaver pond. The 80 acres also seems filled with does, and i've found both a summer and winter bedding area on the property. The property is split between 40 acres planted conifers +/-40 years old ( and some old dried up and grown over swamp beds) and 40 acres mixed hardwood mostly beech,maple and white pine logged for oak 40 odd years ago- the surrounding area is also the same mixed hardwood. The does bed until deep snow in a tall grass old swamp bed within the conifer and under a thick stand of old growth pines in the hardwood section in winter. So my bucks are taking off onto the surrounding properties I guess? Though the does stick around? The neighbors, though not hunters, putz around on 4 wheelers and snowmobiles all year however and i thought that would equate to the same pressure as hunting. Thanks for all the advice guys, I appreciate the passed down wisdom!
I hunt vast areas of public and each mature deer I find on camera has a different personality. Some of them stick to small areas. Some of them move a ton. I had a 160 class that was living on 200 acres and got killed before I could get him. I also had a 145 class buck that I couldn't pin him down to save my life. It's hard to say what you have going on. We have wolves around here that come into play and I am sure you have plenty of them up in the great white north too. They can take the old mature stinky bucks out during the rut pretty easy.
