Will small bucks mate when larger bucks are around?
11-17-2014, 06:01 PM
#31
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Virginia / West Virginia
Posts: 4,906
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.
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.
11-18-2014, 02:52 AM
#32
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Audubon & Red Rock, Penna.
Posts: 4,472
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.
11-19-2014, 05:31 PM
#33
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Virginia / West Virginia
Posts: 4,906
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.
11-20-2014, 05:00 AM
#35
Fork Horn
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: GA
Posts: 357
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...
11-21-2014, 05:02 AM
#36
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 65
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.
Last edited by X_Rayted35; 11-21-2014 at 05:09 AM.
11-21-2014, 06:41 AM
#37
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Audubon & Red Rock, Penna.
Posts: 4,472
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.
11-21-2014, 11:02 AM
#38
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Virginia / West Virginia
Posts: 4,906
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.
Cool you are seeing lots of fawns, our fawn crop is down it seems, at least on my land it is.
