Dirt2

Hi, shed33. Sorry, my e-mail's all screwed up, so I got your message but couldn't get a reply to go.

Each year, I try to dream up a new project to keep learning about the outdoors, not get stuck in a rut. This year it was the track measuring thing. I've measured a few hundred tracks in the snow and soft dirt this winter and spring. Any deer I see, I try to estimate their age, then run up to where they were standing and measure tracks. I measure track width, not length, for unsplayed tracks. Also, I look for tracks where the hind foot fell perfectly into the front footprint, not bothering with the "double prints" where the hind foot falls off to the side or ahead or behind. When I started the project, I expected so much variance in hoof size that the data wouldn't really tell me much. However, after all the measuring I've done, I am coming to believe there is actually little variance, so that the measure seems to be a very accurate method for aging a buck (e.g. I have yet to find a 1 1/2 yr. old buck leaving a track typical of a 2 1/2 yr. old buck).

I'd like to make it clear I am not going to adamantly defend my ideas against all comers, not yet anyway, I could still be wrong. That said, I am willing to say that in my area, any track over 2" wide is almost certainly a buck. Yearling bucks and does up to about 2 1/2 yrs. old seem to measure around 1 3/4". Bucks 2 1/2 yrs. old and really big does measure about 2", and 2 1/8" at the most. Bucks 3 1/2 yrs. old come in at 2 1/4". I don't yet have enough data on bucks older than that to make more than an educated guess, but I'd peg 4 1/2 yr. old bucks at about 2 1/2", and 5-plus yr. olds at 2 3/4" or so. These measures are for November, i.e. hunting season. Seems to me bucks grow about 1/4" per year, but I'll bet that rate slows down or even stops by about 5-6 years old.

This spring I've found two bucks leaving tracks of 2 1/4" and 2 5/16" in my areas, which I estimate to be coming onto their fourth b-days this June. This finding is a big deal for me, since I've killed 3 bucks in the last 4 years, all exactly 3 1/2 years old. I'd love to break that barrier with a 4 1/2 year old! Gotta pattern those two.

I believe track width can be converted into a fair estimate of body weight by taking track width squared times a factor of 35. See below:

1 1/2 y.o. buck 1 3/4" squared equals 3.06" times 35 makes 107 lbs.
2 1/2 y.o. buck 2" squared equals 4" times 35 makes 140 lbs.
3 1/2 y.o. buck 2 1/4" squared equals 5.06" times 35 makes 177 lbs.
4 1/2 y.o. buck 2 1/2" squared equals 6.25" times 35 makes 219 lbs.

I think that makes sense, because our yearling bucks will go 95-110 lbs., two year olds 130-150 lbs., and three year olds 170-200 lbs.

By this scale, a buck leaving a track 3 1/4" would weigh about 370 lbs. I mention this because I keep reading these guys like the Benoits who say they won't even go after a buck unless his track is at least 3 1/4" wide! There's something wrong with their logic. (By the way, a cow elk that leaves a 3 1/4" wide track is 3-plus years old and will weight right around 400 lbs., probably more. My brother killed a huge old cow a couple years back that had 3 1/2" tracks, and weighed 420-something field dressed.)

Anyhow, shed33, I live in the Bitterroot valley. I spent two full summers in my youth backpacking for fun in the Idaho Selway country, mostly in the White Cap Creek area. Spent 60 nights out there in '88. Also, spent two years in the Frank Church on a bighorn study. I got a degree in wildlife management at Univ. of Idaho in '93, not that I've ever worked in that field since college. I'm starting to cook up the idea of a backcountry whitetail hunt in Idaho, probably be a couple years at least before I get serious about it.