Meet "Ol' Floppy". I started getting pics of this guy in 2014 and he was already mature at that point. His floppy left ear and notched right ear made him easy to recognize year after year. Finally, after avoiding my cameras since January, he showed back up and left me feeling heartbroken. I've never seen a buck lose 60" of antler in one year. Would you guys gladly take him, consider it a mercy killing, or let him walk? I'm inclined to shoot him and honor his memory with pics from the glory days on an antler plaque. We will see how I'm feeling if/when he messes up this year...
Mercy killing? Because he doesn't have enough bone on his head for you? Unless he is hurt, mercy has nothing to do with it...... Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Yes, I would, because where I hunt he is still a nice buck and I am not all eat up with horns. Kill him if you want, but don't come on the internet and make it sound like you are doing him a favor....he is perfectly happy eating acorns and chasing does.... Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Well that was on the verge of a major debate. Glad it ended amicably. Not sure what to do with all this popcorn now....
Lol....glad it worked out to your satisfaction....and I like popcorn.... Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
I added another recent picture showing his new posture and lack of muscle tone. I'm not strictly judging his rack.
Opinions are like A-holes...easy and stinky. I'd let him be yote fodder. It takes a special case of suffering for me to cull a buck I wouldn't eat. That buck is clearly in poor enough condition I'd be afraid to eat him so I'd let him go.
pretty cool to watch him age. if you put that last pic in one of those age this buck posts I wouldn't have said a day over 2.5 but I'm obviously no expert. my hunting buddy and I had this conversation yesterday. we saw a small rack buck pestering a doe. he had very dark odd shaped antlers almost like chocolate candy canes . the debate between us was is he 2 or is he 10. I can pretty successfully tell the difference between a 2 year old a and a 4 year old. no clue what a 9 year old looks like ..
I get one archery tag in ND. I'm all about the killing a mature buck but i'm shallow and like decorations for the living room also. I would rather shoot a healthy mature doe the last week of season though.
Shoot him if it makes you happy. For me at this point I'd say he won. I'd let him live out his last year's getting fat on corn and spreading his genes. It's not often a buck makes it that long anywhere.
Harvesting an old deer speaks a lot more to me than a younger buck with a great rack. Although he ain't looking great in the last photos, I might let him walk and just think of him as a good ole boy who is gonna die by his own rules!
I'd probably let him walk. But I can also appreciate your idea of honoring him with old pics and knowimg you killed a very mature old buck. What are the odds you have two deer with one floppy ear? Just saying.
