RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Atlas....I really thought it was you....but I couldn't rememeber. i had it copied into an email that I sent someone else a long time ago. But if you claim it....I'll give you credit.

Footnote: Atlasman!

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Jeff...........listen to yourself. You are saving quotes of mine and still stressing out about them months after they were written.......you save pictures of me........you send me (and other members) bizzare PM's displaying a jekyl and hyde type personality.......and you constantly believe everyone is talking about you. You have gotten so carried away that your actions here boiled over into "real life" and effected the lives of other members and businesses.

Does this sound like the behavior of a well adjusted man in his 40's?? You need to get a grip man.......I really think you are starting to lose it.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Deer don't have the mental capacity to be smart or dumb. They're wild animals. They don't have the capacity to perceive time passed or think about the future.

They do, however, have keen survival instincts. But to think they gain intelligence over time, you guys give 'em way too much credit!

I think someone came up with all this "intelligent, wileycreature" stuff topump themselves up.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Lol i can't tell you what i was thinking when i first saw this topic. On the main page it says "Do older deer become hard" lol :D

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

AMEN motown!

Honestly I can't even believe this topic is up for debate.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

I think they get more out to avoid the area where most hunters go each year. I think they hear the doors slaming an conversation, atvs, dogs, an see hunters alot more than you see them. I believe the older bucks get solitary anthey become less visiblewhich makes them harder to locate except for one time a year, an we know when thatoccurs.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Unbelievably.. their have actually been studies done onhunted herds regarding bucks, age, and ones chances on taking a certain aged whitetail. Former editor of N.A. Whitetail mag. David Morris discusses this topic in his book Hunting Trophy Whitetails. Pardon if my wording is a little off, I am in a current move into a new home.:D

The study states that a 2 1/2 yr. old buck is about 3 times harder to kill than a 1 1/2. The same study showed that a 3 1/2 yr. old buck is about 6 times harder to kill than a 2 1/2 yr. old. The odds on killing a deer greater than 3 1/2 yrs... I can't really remember. Of course odds change from region to region, but this study represented a fair assesment of most whitetail herds in general... I repeat most andin general..

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

And that's Respect!!

What's the big deal....all deer, bucks and does get harder to kill as they get older. That's how they learn to avoid humans so well.;)

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

I'm staying out of the "personal" part of the thread, if you two are having a "Lover's Quarrel," leave it at home!!! :D [&:] [:'(]

As for the original question. I believe as deer get older, yes, they do get more intelligent, and are more difficult to kill. Sure they wouldn't have gotten older if they hadn't gotten all the free passes, but the matter of the fact IS that they got them, and they became more educated. I also believe that more mature bucks become more nocturnal, as they become more educated. But in all honesty, often times the most difficult deer to trick in the woods, year in and out is the mature "matriarchal" doe. My best hunt ever was one in which I got paydirt on the "matriarchal" doe that busted me just as I was about to take out the "King of her 'Castle.'" He was a monster 170-180" typical, and he was clueless, until she busted me, mid-draw. The bucks seem more difficult to many people because there are fewer of them, and more 2.5 yo bucks get passes than 2.5 yo does in my area.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

I would tend to agree with keen survival instincts to survive/adaptmore so then the ability to think like a human. Not saying there isn't any learned behavoirs or should that be conditioned behavoirs. Pressure is the key ingredient to my thinking. Morepressure makes them harder to kill more so then age.

Say you came acrosstriplets with all being buck fawns that are a month old.

Put one in a100 acre nasty, thick, wooded/swampencloser and hand fed it.

Put one in a100 acre nasty thick wooded,swampencloser... let itfend for itself.

Put one in a 100 acre nasty, thick, wooded/swampencloser... let it fend for itself but throw your dog inthere during daylight hoursto chase it everyday.

Say all made it to 1.5 years old. Which oneis tougher tokill ??

Say all made itto 2.5 years old. Which one is tougher to kill??

Say all made it to 6.5 years old. Which one is tougher to kill ??

Would the pampered one be tougher to kill at 1.5 or 6.5 years old ??

Would the 6.5 year old pampered onebe tougher to kill then the harrashedbuck at1.5 years old ??

Just getting older doesn't make a buck tougher to kill. Pressure,conditions and age with a keen instinct to survive/adapt does makea buckeasier or harder to kill.

Tim