In the April edition of everyone's favorite thread, "Age this buck" I'm wondering what the thoughts are on this North East spring buck? I'm normally don't much attention to the "age this buck" type post, but thought it be interesting to see what everyone thinks of a buck that is just starting to grow, coming out of mild winter. I find it hard to age mature bucks during the summer. Do you think he is mature and how old do you think he is? I have some pics of him last year in early November, I have a good idea of his age. Ill post a follow up with last years pics.
I don't think you can accurately tell this time of year to be honest. Here's a thread I did a couple years ago that proved my point. http://forums.bowhunting.com/whitetail-deer-hunting/aging-deer-body-size-63017/
Right now he'd be closer to a whole number since it's nearly spring fawning season, lol. I'd guess 3-4...maybe leaning 4. Actually I was going to just say he's pretty young because only young deer walk in a horizontal forest.
Oh yes I agree, that's really the only reason I posted. I wanted to hear everyone's thoughts. I think its hard to do at anytime really. This buck is 5 this year. He was a wide 140ish 9point last year. Excited to watch him grow, will he blow up this year or is he at his max potential staying in 140ish class. I feel he is a huntable buck with a small core area, hope I get the opportunity to hunt him.
Those Pictures are not good enough to tell. And as the mighty Fitz said, its even more impossible this time of the year to "guess". Here is a June 5, 2015 and November 2, 2015 side by side of my bow buck from last fall. This was a deer that lives in similar big forest no farm land stuff that Fitz hunts so they don't age the same as the farm land deer. Taxidermist figured he was 4.5 and that's what I figured based off of two years of pictures. As you can see he didn't look any older than 2-3 in the June picture.