Age?

[tuthdoc]

The last pic was probably in the last couple weeks. The first three were probbly November. I'm just going by the amount of grass around him. I hunted that blind about 65 times, so it looks like a desert now from all the corn that's been eaten there,

Also, he scores right at 170 as a typical 11. His spread is WIDE. I believe he'll go 28 inside

[cosmiccowboy]

Tuthdoc, he looks 5.5 to me. Chest is really well developed (especially for a thoroughbred frame) and head is pretty deep relative to length.

[txdukklr]

I'd have guessed 5.5

[leebtattoos]

i have 4.5 but could be convinced 5.5 with one of those pics. i would think from year on would be a green light. unless of course the management requires 6.5 you might think he would need 2 years to be safe

[Archery1st]

The last pic was probably in the last couple weeks. The first three were probbly November. I'm just going by the amount of grass around him. I hunted that blind about 65 times, so it looks like a desert now from all the corn that's been eaten there,

Also, he scores right at 170 as a typical 11. His spread is WIDE. I believe he'll go 28 inside

In that case I'm going to go with 5.5 to be conservative - without a good look at his knees. Check his knees if he has good thick caluses over an inch long and half inch wide he's 6.5 plus.

[Hollywood]

4.5

[Artos]

He's a great animal regardless.

I would go two years if I had to pick. He just doesn't look old to me. He has a healthy older gut & a baby face?? I'll say he's 4 or 5....not 5 or 6.

[tuthdoc]

A1st, I've gone through a lot of pics that show his knees and have zoomed in and see no calluses at all, I know my 12 had pretty good calluses on his. I've never thought of them as aging tools, but will make note of them in the future,

[Archery1st]

A1st, I've gone through a lot of pics that show his knees and have zoomed in and see no calluses at all, I know my 12 had pretty good calluses on his. I've never thought of them as aging tools, but will make note of them in the future,

If he don't have any then he "should be" 4.5 - then I would lay off two years at min. I seldom see them before 5.5 years of age.

Hard to imagine he's a 170 as a 4.5 year old this year unless he's a protein head (which I think you said he wasn't)

Jeesh - Imagine what he could be in two years if that is the case.

[Fishndude]

Looks and acts 4

[aironeout]

If he don't have any then he "should be" 4.5 - then I would lay off two years at min. I seldom see them before 5.5 years of age.

I would have to concur with you on this. The other thing I look for is what some people refer to as "summer fur". Every deer whether buck or doe that we have killed that still had summer fur while none of the other deer have had it have all been very old. The one thing that I don't put a lot of stock in is the "roman nose" characteristic. I think that it is more genetic than an age issue, we have killed several deer that had roman noses but only aged at 3.5. Here is an example of one that Kaitlynn killed last year.

[Texan1554]

History: None. He was seen in the helo survey. I'm the only one that has seen him this year other than two long range views. I've had him in front of me at yardages down to 10 yards. He's a thoroughbred type deer. He's 6 inches taller than the other bucks he's come in with and a good bit longer, He's a coward. He wants nothing to do with bucks that even think they want to fight. My 12 point would show up and he'd leave the area pronto. There's a couple bucks that he'll stay around with, but nothing that even remotely looks dominant. He's perfectly in tact as of last weekend. I have hours of video, No protein. When I killed my 12, we went in and put up a feeder and pen right where I killed the deer. This buck lives in that area and hasn't been seen anywhere else.

The groups on the Junco have their own different rules, On our section, we try and let the deer reach 6 1/2, at least.

A 5.5 yr old deer would not be so skittish. I have never seen a 5.5 yr old deer completely ignore contact with another buck. Especially a healthy deer with a good rack. That being said my original thoughts on the body were 5.5, but I tend to favor tempermant. So I'll go with 4.5.

[SaltwaterSlick]

Doc, we call a deer mature at 5 1/2, and if he was on our place, I'd let him walk. He just don't have the body, neck/shoulder interface of a mature deer in my judgement. Granted, I don't get to watch protein heads, but if you want to let him get to 6+, then he needs 2 years. I can tell you that if he grows more bone next year over this year, and he's already at or above 170, I'd whack him next year... too many things can go wrong... injury, someone else shoot him, bad nutritional year, etc., etc. Things will have to go right for him to keep that set of head gear increasing in size for two more years. This is especially true since he "just showed up"... he could just as easily "disappear" too.

[prkchp]

1 more year

[Chance Love]

I'm leaning towards 4.5. Give him two more years.