How to age Bucks on the Hoof

[West Feeds]

We're sorry if this has already been shared here, but we still thought it was a great resource from Realtree on how to quickly age a buck.

[huntandfishguy6]

Number 6 kind of reminds me of me

[asu-indian]

That's great and accurate. However, we aren't judging on the hoof so much anymore and instead, we are judging on game game pics. Game cam pics are still shots that can be deceiving.

[txtimetravler]

I’m convinced hill country deer age gracefully. Lol

[RMW]

After the rut a lot of this can be disregarded

[Landrover]

I've had this one in my travel trailer for probably 8 or 10 years from TPWD. [emoji106]


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[GarGuy]

They stop at 6. What about 7 thru 15?

[Mexico]

They stop at 6. What about 7 thru 15?

Once they hit 9, they go back to 4

[jjaimes]

I need to show this to some hunting buddies

[peterp63]

Once they hit 9, they go back to 4

This ain’t no lie…. Even 3. We’ve had several old bucks that just kept on going. We don’t shoot any under 6.5 so at some point you gotta just use history.

[Gumbo Man]

This ain’t no lie…. Even 3. We’ve had several old bucks that just kept on going. We don’t shoot any under 6.5 so at some point you gotta just use history.

This. Some are better than others at aging on the hoof. I can tell a mature deer as opposed to a young deer but without history on that particular deer we are all just guessing.

[texan16]

Being able to age deer is very important for those trying to "manage" their deer herd. Trying to get deer to a certain age before killing them is a great practice. The problem lies in that when it comes down to it " A LOT" of hunters cant get passed looking at below the ears and once they see a decent set of antlers they are pulling the trigger. Its one thing to SAY you are gonna pass certain deer and then when it comes down to it, the deer gets whacked because they "had a nice rack" or "it was the last day of the hunt and I had to shoot something". Have a plan guys and stick to your guns. Make sure if you have guests they completely understand your management plan (if you have one). Obviously you will never kill 6 yo deer if you are killing them at 3-4 yo and you will never kill 140"+ deer if you are killing them when they are 120's.

[Mossback]

I’m convinced hill country deer age gracefully. Lol

Thats the truth, none of this applies to Kendall and Gillespie county

[wytex]

Pretty sure Dr Deer, Kroll, put out a video on it. Watched it at a outfitters lodge in Kansas before a hunt one time, they were surprised I was one of his students at SFA.

[Gumbo Man]

Pretty sure Dr Deer, Kroll, put out a video on it. Watched it at a outfitters lodge in Kansas before a hunt one time, they were surprised I was one of his students at SFA.

Funny that you bring up Dr. James Kroll. Now don’t for a minute think that I have no respect for man. He has forgotten more about deer and their habits than I can learn in the rest of my lifetime. But I’ll always remember a story that he wrote for Texas Trophy Hunters magazine in the late 80s or early 90s. I believe it was called “ The Ghost Of Boggy Slough. Boggy Slough was one of his management properties and there was a huge monarch living there that he started hunting. The story read that he made a less than perfect shot on that deer and ended up pushing him through the woods until he was finally on the ground. At the end he said that it took 5 more perfectly placed shots to put the deer down. I always wondered how you could get 5 more perfectly placed shots in a wounded deer in the woods of East Texas. Fast forward at the Houston TTHA show that summer he had a booth there. For what I don’t remember. He had one of his students running the booth and I told him that I enjoyed the story but doubted all of the “well placed shots” on a wounded deer running through the woods. He responded by saying that he saw the deer and yes they were all “well placed shots. They were well placed in the legs, the arse and any other place he could put a bullet”. He was snickering the whole time.