So the last 3 years I've had encounters with a specific buck up near my inlaws. I don't know exactly how old he is, but he's at least 4.5 and more likely 5.5+. The first time I saw him he appeared to be a solid 100" 2.5 year old and that was 3 years ago almost to the day. The challenge with this buck is that he only comes to winter in the well used yarding area behind my inlaws house. In the Adirondacks, it's common to see deer migrate 5, 10, 20+ miles to preferred yarding areas. I have no idea where this bucks home range is, but for 3 years now he shows up like clockwork 1-2 weeks after the first decent snowfall of the year. I left the area completely alone this year and hoped for early snow. Last year he showed up for the last week of the season but I wasn't able to get it done. I did have a couple of encounters with him though, and my cousin picked up one of his sheds. Unfortunately we didn't get any snow this year until the last day of the season (2 weeks ago). Sure enough, today I was out with the AR doing a couple of yote calling sets, and there he was. I had him at less than 40 yards for a good half an hour. I'll be after his sheds in a couple of weeks. He's not a big as he was last year, this year I'd say he's a 120-125" perfect clean 8. Pretty good mass on him though, and my in-laws are typically able to see him on almost a daily basis once he shows up in the winter. He's yarding in an area that's only about 20 acres in size, so I'm really hoping to pick up at least one of his sheds.
That's very cool. We witness (at least I believe so) heavy larding up at our cabins (mountainous terrain much like I would expect from the Adirondacks). How did you make out on the yotes?
No yotes yet, only made 2 sets today. I'll be after them the weekend of New Years though and plan to really try and cover some ground.
Only parts of the Adirondacks have a late archery season, and that ended a week ago. This part of the state has no late season unfortunately........ Hopefully he makes it to next year.
Rumor has it that he showed up with no antlers on Tuesday of this week. My father in law went out looking, and apparently found a fresh good sized 4pt shed yesterday...... I'm headed up later this week for a NYE party and for some yote calling over the weekend, I'll take some pics of the shed and see if I can measure it. I'm also going to try and find the other shed, it's got to be there somewhere.
Jeff, I really don't know. I don't know his age to be honest and I'm taking a wild guess. All I know is that he's at least 4.5, but could be 5.5 or much older, I really have very limited experience aging bucks in this age class, especially from this area. I also know that body characteristics from this area can be deceiving. Typically top end mature bucks in this area reach 115-130ish. Last year I guessed him to be be in the 130's, and when I first saw him (3 years ago) he was about 100". I've never seen a 100" buck in this area that wasn't at least 3.5 to 4.5 y/o, he could have been 4.5 y/o+ that first year I saw him which would make him a very old deer now. Keep in mind this area has NO agriculture (for a good 30+ miles) and there is really no mast producing trees except for the odd year that beech trees produce. We are coming off a very hard winter last year which had 18-24+ on the ground from beginning of december to early april, and we also had no beech nut crop this year. Could be his age and/or a very poor crop of food. We haven't had a good beech nut crop for a couple of years, the Adirondack 8 pointer I took last year had nothing but small random forage and briar leaves in his stomach. Last year we had a pretty bad winter kill and the deer that did make it were definitely smaller on average based on what I've heard from other local hunters. I'll post more once I get a pic of the shed and can measure it this weekend. For reference, below is a pic of a buck that I know was 3+ years old (this pic was taken this past July). He is a fawn from one of the does that has been visiting my inlaws property for the past several years, and is easily identified by his giant feet, for some reason he never left the family group. Looking at the pic, he has the body type of a PA 1.5 y/o, but has has a rack and feet that has made him easy to identify through the years............I know for sure he's 3+ y/o in this pic.
Dude, that's a sweet looking satellite dish. My grandfather still has one like that in his front yard.
I've seen those before myself Jeff many times. Again, not sure why this buck seems to be smaller.......could be age, could be food....not sure. He's not a ton smaller though, I'd say 5-10". Didn't one of the Siman brothers say Freaknasty had a side that was smaller than last year?
This (above) buck is an irregular occurence. If lets say 50% of 4 yr olds are 125" or greater... than the other 50% are smaller than. RJ.. I have more antlers of a buck shrinking at age 5 or older than putting on inches.. its not uncommon. The uncommon is whats above. Thats why guys chase them. Sorry you couldn't close on your buck.. RJ.
Now that's interesting, I thought it was unusual for a buck of this age to lose inches. Never heard this before, but I also don't know many people that pick up as much bone as you. It's not a bad thing........this also means that no one else did and the NY season is over. Now I just have to hope he makes it through the winter and the yotes. I plan to help with the latter of the two......:D
Was your winter was like ours was last year (more snow & longer than the previous 4 or 5)? He could easily have dropped inches from the stress of a long winter. It had been long enough since our last good winter, that the majority of our deer population had never had to endure one before.
Yes, that was the type of winter we had last year.........I'm hoping this year isn't as bad. Northern zone deer kill was waaaaay down this year based on what I've heard from most everyone. Camps that used to take 3-5 deer on average per 10 guys, were lucky to take one this year. Lots of camps that haven't gone without a deer for many years went home empty handed this year. What's funny, is that this didn't correspond with what I heard in the southern zone. We had a great year in southern zone (despite not taking a good deer), and most of the reports from others were similar to ours.
