The buck on the right is a buck I call splitter, last year he was an eleven pointer and this year a nine. His rack is worse this year. Do you think he is 4 and a half or five and a half years old? Thanks Scoot
From my understanding, unless there are external factors, deer antlers will get larger each year until about 6.5 as their peak, then they start growing more non-typical points and or start to decline. The body of that deer doesn't look 5.5 plus to me, so maybe there were some external factors like lack of nutrition that would cause this deer to develop at less impressive rack. I would put him at 4.5 and he is a mature buck and should be continuing positive antler growth.
That's a big boy...man he could sport only 80inches and he'd still be a worthy adversary to hunt. I'd chase him for sure.
im going 4 on this one, doesn't he have a potbelly like you would start to see after 4. His "waist line" is perfectly parallel with his chest which is consistant with most bucks in the 4 year old range. who cares though. after three is a mature buck in my book and id be shooting i guarantee you that.
I agree now that I've looked at him some...I think he's a buck some people would age older but now I am starting to think he's just got some great genetics compared to other bucks his age.
I too agree that buck isn't over 4 years old. Older deer you start to see a definite pot belly, as well as a dip in the middle of their back. He certainly is still a shooter in most anyone's book so I wouldn't worry too much about age. I think there was possibly a nutrition issue or something of that nature to make his rack reduce in points. He still looks plenty healthy to me though!
