Alright guys and gals. Can anyone provide some tips/pointers on how they keep track of bucks year to year with trail cam pictures. My main question is how do you tell different bucks apart? Let's say you have a nice 8 pointer this year and next year he is a 10 pointer. How do you know that's the same deer? Obviously if there are crab claws or kickers that stay every year that would be one way to tell. But for your typical whitetails that have normal frames, how do you know it's the same buck? Pictures or examples would be helpful. Thanks.
You didn't know it is easier to just rename the bucks each year, heck 1 picture is all it takes to claim you have a history with that buck.
Haha well that's what I was kind of wondering. I figured people just guessed that it was the same buck they had pictures of and passed on the year before. But if a buck puts on around 20 inches or so from one year to the next how can you really know for sure it's the same one.
99% of the time I can recognize them as individuals. There are almost always subtleties that culminate to make up an individuals unique look. Kind of like someone saying something like "All asians look alike or "X" race look alike", while a race may share general similarities most anyone who is observant can recognize individuality. It's also not always about physical characteristics, often times individual bucks also act unique. Some always follow the same habit and mannerisms. Certainly it takes study of them on a regular basis. I'm far less likely to be able to recognize a buck I've only seen a couple times on camera from year to year. I have to see them enough to get familiar with them before my brain says "hey I know that deer". On rare occasion if a deer really increases or decreases his antler mass from year to year I can still miss identify him, it doesn't happen very often but it does happen. I had one of my top bucks last year lose about 20+ inches and I didn't recognize him until I found his sheds and happened to compare them to the prior year. They were still shaped the same.
I agree with Covey - if you look at pics long enough you begin to recognize a deer's "look" which doesn't change from year to year. Of course I always look for defining features as well - an extra large throat patch, notch in an ear, etc. After a couple years I can recognize a lot of deer even after they've shed their racks. As deer age they may add or lose points, get bigger or smaller, but most of the time the overall shape of their frame stays the same. So I start looking at things like how far up from the base their brow tines are, if they have any kinks or bends in their tines or beams, etc. In most cases it's relatively easy to track deer once they hit 2 years old and older just by the rack. From 1 to 2 they change so much it can be hard to really gauge them. Here's an easy one where his brow tines from 1-2 were the giveaway. Then from 2-3 it's easy to see the similarity in the rack. 1 year old 2 year old 3 year old
You do get to the point you recognize even the does if you get enough pics and watch them long enough.
Here's another deer we've been watching for years. He's a tough one to identify sometimes as he toggles between 8 and 9 points from year to year. and his rack does have some weird shape changes. Unfortunately for us he summers on our property and then moves south once his velvet comes off so we rare see him hard horned. 2013 was the only time I saw him and actually missed a shot. Doh. 2013 - 3 years old 2014 - 4 years old 2015 - 5 years old 2016 - 6 years old 2017 - 7 years old
Some, yes. But most of the time they need to have some defining quality or look to give them away. We have a one doe with white "socks" and another with almost all white front legs that are easy to spot.
1. Brow Tines Brow Tines Brow Tines Brow Tines Brow Tines: rule of thumb is even if a deer packs on the inches the general shape of the brows changes very little. 2. Ears: the shape is slightly different on different deer and lucky for me a fair number of mine manage to take a chunk out of there ear so that makes them super easy to track because none of the chunks are the same. 3. Face: Just like people they can have different face shapes, scars and hair color. The easy ones are ones with extra white or black fur around the nose area. 4. Look at pictures every single day of the year. If you cant do that look at them 5 days a week. I have my best pictures of all my deer on my computer and I never take breaks away from my desk other then using the restroom. So I use my break time every single day at work to study those pictures and aerial photos. I do see a lot of guys post pictures on here and especially on facebook claiming a deer is the same from the year before and they look nothing alike ( one is super wide and the other is narrow and super tall). I have had 3 deer since 2015 put on 25"+ from one year to the next and it was fairly easy to tell them all apart. One of those deer went from a 80" 8pt to a 130" 11pt to a 164" 17pt in 3 years. I have pictures of him all 3 years and saw/passed him the first two years before I shot him last year.
Thanks for the tips. I guess I just need more practice. Like Justin and the others have said it isn't that hard to tell bucks apart.. At least after you have looked at enough of them and studied pictures. I'm hoping I can start training my eyes this year and see some big bucks next year that we let pass this year. Bowtech Rpm 360 - 71 lbs 29 inch draw Gold tip velocity xt arrows, HHA Optimizer, Rip cord rest.
