Trophy Vs. Young buck
 

So my question is... other than looking for a rack to hang on a wall, why would a hunter go after an older buck rather than a young one?

The way I see it, hanging on to the older, mature bucks would tend to strengthen the herd. If hunting regulations required three point and below (Washington State), the survivors, the bucks smart enough to evade hunters, would tend to be the best of the young. They would therefore be competing with the mature bucks for dominance within the herd. Wouldn't that produce better animals?

PLUS, a spike is a whole better eating!

:s201:Someone please tell me why that doesn't make sense.

I like to shoot one better than the one I shot last.

...............but you always know when you see a shooter !

Just because a buck has a good rack doesn't mean he is old.
I have a self imposed limit of 8 points eastern count. This one was only 1 1/2 years old when the DNR people aged it.





The next one I got was just a spike but had been wounded. it checked out as 2 1/2 years old. different crops in the area that year than in the year before.



:D Al

Because a crafty old buck is a challenge and tests my skills.

The bit about saving the old bucks to strengthen the herd is baloney. The younger bucks carry the genes of the older bucks and will pass them along just as well as an older buck.
Who do you think the daddys of the young bucks are?
Bingo..... The old mossy horns that are so fun to hunt.

Thanks for the feedback.
Bullcamp, your daddy's point is a good one.

I hunt for the meat,antlers come in second.

Where I hunt I am lucky that the limits are extemely liberal. And the property I hunt has a high density of deer. So it is relatively easy for me to take several does each year. And this is what I generally do to replinish my venison supply. I pass the young bucks because choose to and as already mentioned, it is a challenge to hunt a mature buck. I will add the it is my experience that the hardest deer to bag is an old savvy nanny. She has reared several year's of fawns and knows how to sense danger ... and she never goes off guard as sometimes a mature buck might when the estrus is in full swing.

Mojo is right. If you want to shoot a couple or three does out of a group identify the matriarch and shoot her first. The rest of the group will often react with confusion and mill around, giving you targets. If you shoot some other doe first and the matriarch takes off the whole group goes with her.

What if you shoot up young generation and the old generation just dies?

I'm focused on "management bucks" or mature trophy bucks.

ie... I'd rather take a 2.5yo 6pt 8pt than a 2.5yp 10pt/12pt

I want more of the 10's and 12's breeding vs. shooting nice 10pints when they're 2.5yo and letting inferior 6-8pt type bucks breeding.

Yeah that is the downside of point resrictions.

Better genetics get removed younger. That is why I don't like point restrictions.

Good genetics have 8+ points as 2 year olds. Meanwhile a mature 6 point just breeds away year after year.

Buck
 

That is why I like Wyo and Kansas. You get any deer. Which means buck or Doe . I passed several dinks and last minute popped a nice fat doe. She was delicious!!! If I had a Buck only, the first small 8 pointer was dead. I want something special or a doe. I will let that little 8 pointer grow up and maybe some young hunter will shoot him next year. But I like the meat too!! With those tags you get to choose and I am not held to shooting a little buck if I want to fill the freezer.

It must be nice to have the option of choosing between shooting a mature or young buck. In Vermont if you don't shoot the first legal buck (2 points on one side) there is a decent chance you may not see another legal buck the rest of the season. We don't have the firearm option for does. Bow season and muzzleloader by lottery only.

Older bucks are challenging to kill. I pass on many small bucks a year that could have been easily killable. I'm going after the old buck that has eluded many hunters. If you take on the challenge to kill the ghost of the woods, its a whole different ball game.

Yep, no little bucks for me. It's a big buck or does for the freezer.

We like to let the Younger Bucks grow and Mature,if there's a Buck that can't seem to grow a nice Rack we have shot one like that and was plenty happy with the meat and I have given the hide away for a Taxidermist to use in mounting a different Buck on!

I've taken many Deer over the years and like to shoot a nice 8-Point or Bigger Buck and I have had several nice Bucks on my trail camera to where I could be much more selective and picky!Still as the Season goes on and Hunting gets tougher I'm just as happy with a nice Big Fat Mature Doe and I save a lot of money when I don't have a Big Ol Buck to mount! :D ;)

Last year I passed on a decent Young 8-Point Buck....I knew I wouldn't have Him mounted so why waste a nice Deer that will be much better next year?Plus I ended up shooting a decent Doe later on and the Nephew wiped out the front of His Moms Mini-Van hitting a nice tender 7-Point Buck 2 weeks before Rifle Season so I was ahead of the Game from the start!

Yep, its like hunting a different species.

That is not how it works for most of us. That is how it works on TV.

Most of us regular folks take that same chance of going home empty handed.

That is the price you pay to harvest the big boys.

I spend hundreds of hours in a tree from the time mosquitoes are swarming my face all the way through the time when I'm hunting in sleet,and freezing rain just on the hope that I get one chance.

Most of us don't just simply get to choose..... We pay the price to earn an opportunity.

Does in September bow season fill my freezer, Im only interested in bucks if they make my heart thump. Or if it's just an interesting little rack that I like. I let plenty of bucks walk before i take the one I want. More often than not that means immature deer walk.

I should have added,a choice between a fat doe or a young buck,I'll take the doe every time.To me they just taste better.

Any 6pt or better buck passed during firearm season here in this area of Michigan will not be seen come late bow season or muzzle loader season. some one else harvested it. Very few make it past 2 1/2 years old and you can buy 5 roe tags per day over the counter here.
I passed up a weird 8 point in 2010, had huge beams but little tiny 2 inch points. I watched that deer come down the hill 50 yards from my blind cross the creek walk about 50 yards across the flood flats and start up the hill on the other side and die before he made it to the crest. Fellow next door got it and couldn't believe I had just let it walk away.

:D Al

Everywhere Ive ever hunted most of the small/young bucks I let walk end up getting shot. That is just part of it. Unless you own a lot of land or can afford to pay big money hunting mature bucks means hunting the bucks the other hunters can't get not hunting bucks they let go.

I understand your point and probably should have worded my thoughts differently. I also spend hundreds of hours building plots, I run cameras year round in several locations, scout year round, and shoot throughout the year all with the hopes of bringing home a "trophy". The challenge in Vermont becomes the limited ability to take does and the few bucks to begin with. The buck to doe ratio is somewhere around 5or6:1 (maybe worse). The rut in Vermont is not what it is in other states with a better ratio. It is simply easy for a buck to find a receptive doe. This severely limits their movement. Sure you will see the occasional scrap or rub but they are few and far between. Trail cam pics say the same thing. In a couple of high density doe areas the older bucks are generally only 2.5 There will only be a handful of 200 bucks killed in the entire state. A 120 inch deer will have people talking for miles. My point was not that it was easy for others to simply wait and pick out the buck with the most inches. There is no such thing as easy fair game hunting. My point was that knowing mature "trophy" bucks are attainable if you put in the time and effort is something that we do not have in Vermont. I'd like to think I would let the young buck live to see another year but given the herd I hunt that is difficult to do.

I have become a meat hunter.After hunting for 50 years, I have more horns than Carter has pills, and being half a century+++ the teeth have decided to leave the premises. A few mature does and buck is on the table when I go out for my winter supply. I have walked away from monster whitetail and mules, as I really don't need the horns to crow about. Already have them and the memories. Every deer that a hunter takes is his/her trophy and memory.

I hear you redgreen.

30 years ago I'd have stewed for days over blowing a chance at a wall hanger.

I still blow chances, but now I laugh at myself.

I have a pretty unique situation for me. I have a small spot that I hunt right outside Chicago that I pretty much know for a fact that no one hunts within 4 miles of me because it is the only legal spot to hunt. Heck, the only spot you really can hunt. Here, the people who own this small lot and they're neighbors want me to shoot any deer. Million dollars houses that spend lots of money on flowers to see them eaten by deer. My father who uses a crossbow will take the first buck and any doe that walks by to start the season. They are very over populated. He actually passed a nice 9 pointer this year because he knows its going to be a very nice deer this year. This is the spot I will shoot a small buck if I don't get a good buck by the Sunday of 1st gun season and need a deer for the freezer. Id rather take a doe but any deer that walks by is fair game. When I hunt my main spot in central Illinois, all the small bucks get a pass. I run a lot of trail cameras so I have history with a lot of deer. If I have a couple real good ones, It's almost an obsession trying to figure them out. They have figured most hunters out, I'm trying to be the one the figures him out. I can make 50 mistakes during the season, he just has to make one.

I think its the other way around.

He can make 50 mistakes but you only have to make one.