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-   -   Will small bucks mate when larger bucks are around? (https://www.huntingnet.com/forum/whitetail-deer-hunting/395617-will-small-bucks-mate-when-larger-bucks-around.html)

WV Hunter 11-17-2014 06:01 PM

Those first three are definitely big. But my guess is they are the exception, not the rule. I'm sure your deer are probably bigger than ours, but on avg... probably not that much bigger.


RR, you and I hunt the same deer...I hunt hampshire and frederick. Mountain deer. If you go a couple counties over from me (east) they gain about 20-40lbs on avg over what we get. Biggest we ever got was 145 totally field dressed.

The scale will make even the best weight guessers feel stupid. Almost everyone way overestimates.

BarnesX.308 11-18-2014 02:52 AM

Three more exceptions to the rule. The reason they are the exception is because mature bucks are the exception. We see many more 1.5 and 2.5 year old bucks and a few 3.5 year old bucks. 4.5 year olds and older are not see with much frequency.




WV Hunter 11-19-2014 05:31 PM

Yesir, those are some big body deer. I'd love to get one like that someday. Even our mature bucks just aren't big body. My dad killed a 5.5yr old 2yrs ago that weighed 119 dressed on the DNR scale.

redgreen 11-19-2014 05:39 PM

Yes. I have shot them right off the doe.

ojibwa 11-20-2014 05:00 AM

you will find in most cases smaller ie younger bucks do most of the breeding, It does not matter the age of the buck breeding as long as they have good genetics.. Several studies in recent years have shown that many larger buck don't participate in the rut at all...

X_Rayted35 11-21-2014 05:02 AM


Originally Posted by WV Hunter (Post 4169974)

At the rate I've seen mature does without fawns this year, it appears that even with all the small bucks breeding they couldn't get to em all.

I am the exact opposite. Literally every single doe I have seen this year had fawns. Im not exaggerating at all. Had a doe come out Wednesday afternoon that still had twins in tow.




Originally Posted by BarnesX.308 (Post 4170018)
125lbs is certainly only a yearling and probably born late as a fawn. He will improve next year. Unless you live in The Keys and he's a Keys deer.

150 is the average mature buck in SC it seems. I have killed 3 bucks this year, which is a lot for me since I usually only kill 1 or 2 a year. Shot a 8, 9, and a 10 and their weights in order were 160, 152, and 149. Those weights are NOT dressed. I dont process my own deer so I just get the weight when I drop them off with guts intact. Also my average for Does seems to be ~90.

BarnesX.308 11-21-2014 06:41 AM

Ah, you're in SC. The deer are a little smaller in the south than the north. We are in northern PA. On top of a mountain. Our winters are brutal and the deer seem to be big-bodied. Last winter, we hit -26.

WV Hunter 11-21-2014 11:02 AM


Originally Posted by X_Rayted35 (Post 4171101)


150 is the average mature buck in SC it seems. I have killed 3 bucks this year, which is a lot for me since I usually only kill 1 or 2 a year. Shot a 8, 9, and a 10 and their weights in order were 160, 152, and 149. Those weights are NOT dressed. I dont process my own deer so I just get the weight when I drop them off with guts intact. Also my average for Does seems to be ~90.

So your mature bucks are about like ours where I'm at in VA/WV. All ours are weighed field dressed.

Cool you are seeing lots of fawns, our fawn crop is down it seems, at least on my land it is.


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