I was out scouting tonite, looking for this buck that has been leaving some size 15 hoof prints all through the corn field. i finally glassed him wtih 4 other bucks, and they came to within 40 yards of me before i purposely bumped them to verify that the buck that has those monster hooves was the buck i was watching. He's leaving huge prints, with dew claws even when walking. Right now he has good main beam length, one tine on each side plus the main beam. He is at or just outside the ears. Any idea what size he'll be come September?

slayer

Based on this limited information it would be impossible to even throw out a guess. If you manage to get a good picture and post it you will probably be able to get a few guesses.

no clue how big he can get. if you found his sheds you would have a much better estimate. or if you saw him last year.

It's hard to determine how large the antlers will be. As far as weight, there is one way to tell if he's really big. Measure the width of the track, if it's 3" or larger he's a big one. The width of a 30/06 (180 grain) is about 3 1/4 " You can use this (or any round that you carry) for a quick measure. This is a technique that is used by the Benoit family from northern Vermont. I read their article from Outdoor Life last year. To give an idea of how big that deer may be. One of the Benoits (Lanny, I think) used that gauge when deciding whether to track a particular animal. His last 10 deer have dressed at over 240 lbs.

I've got a bone with that Benoit method. Do you realize that a track 3 1/4" wide would represent a good-sized cow elk? An elk weighing about 400 lbs.?

Dirt, I realized that and was unsure if they were talking length instead of width.

I also have a beef with the hoof size as it has nothing to do with the head gear he'll grew, he could be a large animal with poor antler genes or even a buck in the downslide who is putting more of the nutrients to his body vs antlers at this stage in life. Some of the biggest deer antler wise haven't been anything more than average or even below average in terms of body size that I have taken. On the opposite end 2 years ago I took the largest Wt buck (weight wise) I have ever seen or harvested, he tipped the scales in the 350 live weight range but his antlers were on the downslide scoring only 150's typical. No doubt had i caught up with him a year or even two earlier he would have been much larger in the other direction!

As to the question I certainly won't even hazard a guess. A picture next time would be helpful. I will say in my area this time of year the truly big deer antlers look more like globs vs well formed points, but it really depends what stage of development they are in. I would guess he is fairly early if he is only sporting 1 antler point a side and in that case if you think his beams look globby chance are he'll be a decent buck come the fall.

hoof size doesnt represent bone size, it may represent maturity though