HatchieLuvr

My farm neighbor has been telling me about this buck as he's seen it a couple of times since muzzleloader (he doesn't bow hunt, but we do). Last Thursday afternoon I watched him at 320yds across an open area (levee'd duckhole) with 15x binos for several minutes. He WAS tempting but being so young and with obvious potential, I knew it had to be the one my neighbor had passed a couple of times, I let him walk as well. These pics are from my neighbors game cam he has on a cornplot (appx 300yds thru the woods from where I saw him).

We both think he's only a 3yr old. By body characteristics and mass of his beams. (He's appx 185# liveweight which is about right. Some of our 3yr olds are that "light" and we've killed four 3yr olds over the years that were 220#. I seriously doubt he's a 2yr old as they typically are 150-170# and rarely score over 110-115.) He has a sticker on his right G-2 but you can't clearly see that on these pics.

If he stays an 8 and just grows stickers nextyear I'm thinkin as a 4yr old he'll be a high 140s-150 buck. (A HELLUVA 8 no doubt!) But hopefully he'll become a 10 or better and then it's KATY BAR THE DOOR from there on out. I've agreed with my neighbor that he'll get a pass from us for the rest of our season BUT we CAN'T really tell our boys and their friends (teens) that they MUST let him walk as that's obviously not fair to them in our opinion.

But man, doesn't he have what you hope for in a classic "trophy to be" sense?

HatchieLuvr

"Smile for the cam"

Oldtimr

Quite frankly, I prefer for nature to manage bucks. The ferver over antler madness will be the ruination of deer hunting. If the high fence operations in Texas where the average guy can't afford to hunt, so be it but as far as worrying how old a deer is so he may grow bigger antlers goes, I could care less. My concern is is the deer legal, and how much meat will my freezer see. So you will have to forgive me, while I do like seeing nice buck, I don't get all shivery over them and a real big doe will make me just as happy as a buck.

rockport

Antlers have nothing to do with the ruination of hunting(deer have always had antlers). Declining morals have everything to do with it.

and by the way how does shooting small bucks with a rifle = "nature managing the bucks" Seems more like letting them mature(if nature allows) is closer to letting nature manage the bucks. I don't know but it seems ass backwards to me.

This stuff never makes sense to me. It seems like if you like seeing nice bucks and you just want to fill your freezer this is exactly what you would be doing.

BarnesX.308

The ranches on the hunting shows would cull that buck because he's an 8-pointer. They would have the guy who only spent $3-4000 on his "management hunt" shoot it. As he had to watch countless 5x5s walk by.

iayotehunter

That body looks awful small and has the characteristics of a 2.5 year old. Would be surprised if he was one.

iayotehunter

And if you are looking at "how much meat my freezer will see" then it'd make more sense to shoot mature deer as they're larger in size. A mature doe will be larger than most bucks 3.5 and younger. So by the time a buck would be more profitable meat wise he'd have to be 4.5 which many people classify as mature.

Never understand why people say you can't eat antlers but then they go and shoot young bucks when a mature doe will provide more and better tasting meat

grinder67

That may very well be an accurate statement where your from but where I am from that is no where close to accurate. A year and half old buck will way 120-140 pounds. I have never seen a doe at any age go over the 150 pound mark.Now I know there are a few out their (or so i am told) But a doe legitimately over 150 field dressed are pretty rare and most any 2.5 year old buck will be 150 +. As always just my opinion but based on 40 years of shooting deer and I certainly do not mean to disrespect your opinions or observations.

HatchieLuvr

iayo it's the angle of the cam and the fact that those are "pics of pics" that my neighbor took from his computer screen via his cell. The deer is around 185-190 (liveweight) and that's about in the top mid-avg for our 3yr olds down here. (I'm on the river, if you get 2-3 miles outside the river bottom the size and body weights drop considerably in this region of west TN!) The biggest 3s we have taken were 220# and I can show you some 4+yr olds I took pics of back in late Sept that are easily 250+.

Here's another 3yr old that I've seen half a dozen times this season and in the same general area that the above 8 has been seen in. He's a 10 (4x5 with a sticker on his right G-2). He's another 180-190#er it's just easier to see his body size and proportion because this is a pic I took with a good camera, at 45yds thru the fog during our second morning of muzzleloader season last month. The big 8 is more "race horse" built as his body is actually longer and more "athletic" whereby this 10 is more "compact and pudgy" by comparison. Standing side by side, the 8 is a good bit bigger everywhere compared to the 10pt.

ps
I can appreciate what Oldtimr said, many feel that way and I'm not offended by it. My grandfathers from Williamsport, PA (been in MS since "The War" so he's more southerner than yankee anymore. ) and I know quite a few people up there have the same sentiment. Down here in "deerville" we have more deer than people so we have NO problem just filling the freezer and aren't restricted by low bag limits. In fact my farm is in "Unit L" in west TN which is for "Liberal bag limits" (NOT politics! ) and beginning with our bow season in late Sept running thru our last juvie gun which is in mid-Jan, we can take 3 does PER DAY, PER HUNTER! If you shot 3 per day, everyday the number would be nearly 300! So I'll usually have 3-4 nice, plump does processed each season. The cull and trophy buck meat I donate to "Hunters for the Hungry" via our local processor. I'd MUCH rather have a nice 1-3yr old doe on the grill than a ol juiced up, ruttin 3+ yr old buck! Body weight wise, our bucks surpass even our largest does by their 2nd year. We've killed some OLD, long "coke bottle nosed" does with huge, fat bodies and they'll be pushing it to weigh over 140-150#. Most of the mature does we take are in the 130# range (all weights I give are live weight). On my river bottom property most of the 2yr olds will weigh 150# give or take 10#. The 1yr olds bucks are considerably smaller, I'd say 120-130# giver take 10#.

olsaltydog

To each their own, in NC the number of deer one can harvest means the size doesn't mean much if your pursuit is meat. In other states that family lives the size does mean alot more as they can only get a few a season. If someone pursues a trophy then that is what they are pursuing. Respect each others decision and way.