RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Amen, age has very little to do with how well a deer avoids humans. The major reason it is much more difficult to kill a 4.5+ year old buck than a 1.5 year old buck is simply because there are less of them out there. I forget what the exact stat was but here in PA several years ago something around 70% of harvested bucks were 1.5 year olds, that is a huge chunk out of the following years 2.5 year old.

As far as age goes, it is simply a number. You can't put a level of difficulty to kill a deer simply by age. In general, yes, a older buck is harder to kill than a younger buck but that is simply because the older buck has been pressured in his life and he changed his patterns to avoid that pressure. Is this intelligence? No, it is instinct. Honestly, I personally don't believe that deer do anything because they choose to, they just do it, no matter what the age.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

deer do learn. they do remember as someone quoted earlier "they dont remeber the past".. BS! get busted in a tree once... if its a old buck he aint comin back if its a younger buck an he happens to come backhe's lookin up that tree.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Hard to dispute that deer get educated, smarter as they age. However I believe now that with QDM and many hunters passing on the younger bucks, we now have dumber mature bucks. Bucks that would have been dead as yearlings in the brown its down days now bet passed many times in a season. Sure they get a bit smarter each year but over all not as smart as the mature buck from years ago. Back than only the smartest of bucks lived to be 4 or 5 years old.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Naturally if a deer is never hunted or pressured as it gets older it probably wouldn't change its habits but in most instances an older deer has been pressured and hunted so it has learned. It has learned where the "safe" areas are. It will learn not to come out in certain areas until darkness. It will learn that certain sounds do not belong in the woods and may scatter at those specific sounds. It will learn to move out of an area through the years. I have defintely seen this happen as a big buck gets older and it wasn't because of better food sources. It was all in the name of survival. All in all an older deer is harder to kill IMO.

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Coug.....

Let's just say that you have an area that receives little pressure. You seeten to twelve 1-1/2 yr old in the Fall. You see five to seven 2-1/2 yr olds.....two 3-1/2 yr olds......and ONE 4-1/2+.

How do you explain this? If they're not pressured and we know they're there (trail cam photos)......how would they not be harder to kill? You have to see them to kill them.

Is this a fair question?

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

That one 4 1/2 yr. old will be harder to kill......at least until peak rut because he is the only mature buck or at least the oldest. Of course the young bucks will be easier to kill, or maybe I should say it will be easier to kill one of the young bucks because their are more of them.

All I know is that everywhere I have hunted a young buck or any young deer is much easier to kill because they are not experienced enough to know better. They may all have been born with the same level of instincts, but as they grow older they have also learned.

Heres a question.....do hunters believe that some deer are born smarter than other deer or do some deer have a higher capacity to learn more than other deer?

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

Coug....I think you missed my point. I KNOW there are more older deer, there. I have trail cam photos of them. Isn't that fact, alone, proof that these guys are harder to kill?

Again....you can't kill what you don't see.

Let me ask this question......and see how it goes.....

Would you rate the age of the deer harvestedas a factor in determining the ease oramount of difficulty encountered when it comes to harvesting said deer?

If I see those same 10-12 yearlings (1-1/2 yr olds)......and I have them all in bow range.....the odds of killing one (or as many as I have tags for)is great.

Now what's the odds of me taking that3-1/2 yr old? The 4-1/2 yr old??

Interesting topic.....and some differing points of view.....

RE: Do older deer become harder to kill?
 

TJF, Right on the money. Survival and adaption.