Interesting Young Buck and Biologist Question

[El General]

We are in our first year on a lease between San Angelo and Robert Lee. We have been pleasantly surprised with the quality of deer there. Specifically, on very nice 10 has caught our eye. He is very young (I think 3.5) and scaring 150"











We didn't get a camera on the feeder that he hangs out at until december, but for several weeks he came there daily. We did get a bit of video of him working a scrape back in October

[BamaPSE]

Not many of your pictures are coming through

[Bleu]

Looks like he's likes hanging out with that pig

[El General]

The first thing I noticed about this deer (after the antlers and age) was that he showed little to no tarsal staining on his legs. I thought that was wierd, but I guess it is possible in a three year old that he was not an active participant of the rut.

There is one hunter that has seen this deer live, and he thought he was 3.5 or maybe younger. He also said that the deer was quite a bit smaller than deer he saw with him of similar age.

We have pictures of that deer everyday up until 12-25. Then he disappears. He was not shot by one of our hunters, but the canyon he lives in is not very far from our east fence line.

The hunter that saw him goes back to that stand last week and sees a buck that has dropped his horns and thinks it is this same 10 point.

So, I go back and check the pics, and literally the day that that ten point disappears, this deer shows up that we had not seen before.

[mikemorvan]

Pretty buck. Huge potential.

[bigmike585]

Could be wrong, and it's just a guess but, I think he may be getting pretty old. They get pretty run down after the rut too, so it's tough to tell. Any summer pics of him?

[El General]

This deer is odd in many ways.

1) Very large and heavy antlers at a young age
2) No tarsal staining
3) Drops his horns in late December

Is there some defect that would lead to all three of these things?

[Rwc]

Great prospect.......but he runs with a hog, and oh yea.........your feeder lid don't want to stay put! lol

Are you sure that shed deer and the 10 is not the same deer.

Rwc

[El General]

Could be wrong, and it's just a guess but, I think he may be getting pretty old. They get pretty run down after the rut too, so it's tough to tell. Any summer pics of him?

He does look very run down, but most of the bucks on the range do. He does not have loose skin typical of a post mature deer.

If he is old, the guy that watched him at less than 20 yards for an hour is going to be kicking himself.

[El General]

Great prospect.......but he runs with a hog, and oh yea.........your feeder lid don't want to stay put! lol

Are you sure that shed deer and the 10 is not the same deer.

Rwc

Yes, I think he is the same deer.

[Kolpin10]

Don't know if you noticed but if you look at the picture of the right jaw you can see that it looks like a scar and does not look filled out in the picture, if it is broke it could account for the buck looking rundown. Even if it is healed he may only be able to eat on one side.

[bigmike585]

Don't know if you noticed but if you look at the picture of the right jaw you can see that it looks like a scar and does not look filled out in the picture, if it is broke it could account for the buck looking rundown. Even if it is healed he may only be able to eat on one side.

Good point, if he busted his jaw fighting early on, it could have caused him not to rut at all, just surviving, heckuva good buck tho

[El General]

Don't know if you noticed but if you look at the picture of the right jaw you can see that it looks like a scar and does not look filled out in the picture, if it is broke it could account for the buck looking rundown. Even if it is healed he may only be able to eat on one side.

I did notice that, but it didn't occur to me that it was an injury.

But here are some more pics that show it.

[El General]

Also, someone else noted that he runs with that hog. I don't know about that, but he isn't scared of hogs like most deer.

[Saddle Tramp]

I think he is older than you think