Thanks to all for the replies, I really do appreciate it. It helps me get a mental picture.

To MTdrahthaar, yes I havea great area to shed hunt in. It's a winter range that draws more whitetail in than just the year-round native population. I'm at 22 sheds this spring. It has become a major part of my annual ritual, and I really work at it. I'll say it's in NW Montana, but not in your immediate area. I live in the Bitterroot and actually gave up on the whitetail hunt here. The old bucks just are very, very rare here because of the hunting pressure. (I don't bow hunt the river bottom, that'sanother gameentirely.)Once I spent a few days in NW MT I knew I'd turned over a new leaf. Two of the last three seasons, I've gone into there on the final day of the season just for kicks, no tags left, and had monster bucks walk past inside bow range. That area suffers very little hunter mortality, so it's a question of predators. Oddly, I don't see much sign of cougars and wolves, although granted I did find a dead cougar this spring!

Anyhow, you can draw up a real rough picture of buck age structure if you have F&G data on buck:doe:fawn ratios. Hang on for the math, but here in the Bitterroot they typically count ratios of 16:100:66. You can extract a buck mortality rate from that, specifically it should be 33/49 or about 67%. NW MT doesn't do specific aerial surveys of whitetails, but they estimate 30:100:40 on the F&G website. That gives you annual mortality of "only" 40% (20/50). Anybody who really wants to know the math behind that can ask. Anyhow below is a basic age structure for the B-root vs. NW MT, based on those mortality rates.

B-root NW MT
1 1/2 1,000 1,000
2 1/2 330 600
3 1/2 109 360
4 1/2 36 216
5 1/2 + 18 324.

Those curves assume that mortality is level across the ages, which probably isn't true. I think it'sclear that you don't see as many older bucks as that chart suggests you should. I think some small percentage of hunters out there do pass up smaller bucks, plus the older boys start to drop faster as they age. My "more accurate" charts would rachet up mortality once bucks reach 3 1/2 years old, and look like this:

B-root NW MT
1 1/2 1,000 1,000
2 1/2 400 700
3 1/2 160 490
4 1/2 32 245
5 1/2 + 8 245.

Those ratios are ballpark to what I actually see in the woods. In the B-root about 1 buck in 8 should be 3 1/2 years or older, my hunting logs have the ratio at about 1 in 6. Only 1 in 40 would actually be the magic 4 1/2 plus category, which given our slower antler growth rates is the age Ireally start to get excited about. I have yet to see an actual 4 1/2 year old in the B-root.

Up north, the picture brightens considerably. Better than 1/3 of the bucks should go 3 1/2 plus, and my hunting logs would say right at 40%. Furthermore, you actually see some 4 1/2 year old and older deer. Roughly 1 buck in 6 should be at that magical age, and my hunt logs have the ratio pretty near that.

Before more folks decide to move in to MT, remember to temper those numbers with the realization that by age 2 1/2, our bucks are about a year behind the growth curve typical of the midwest. (Most of our 2 1/2 year olds score 70-90.)

Good luck to all, if I get windy, at least it helps me through the offseason.