Is 5 yrs old the new young?

[Chance Love]

I've seen some deer have their best antlers at 5 and others at 10. On a deer lease its hard to get people to hold off on deer that are 6 or older

Yep, never know when they might "pop".

But I gotta disagree a little with your last sentence. It can be very easy to get folks to pass 6 and 7 year old deer. Just depends on the guy making the rules. (In our case, it's me.) Just gotta change the rule going forward. If some members don't like it, there are plenty of others who will.

And I'll throw this out there to take it a step further...I don't really agree with a blanket statement/rule that it's ok to shoot any trophy as long as he is 8 (or 7 or whatever). I think each deer needs to be looked at individually and to decide if he should go to 8, 9 or 10, or longer. That's how we are. No deer gets shot "just because he's old enough". But I realize not every place can operate this same way. Just a thought.

[rubicon51]

At the lease I hunted for 10+ years, we never shot anything younger than 5.5 y/o

[sotx]

And I'll throw this out there to take it a step further...I don't really agree with a blanket statement/rule that it's ok to shoot any trophy as long as he is 8 (or 7 or whatever). I think each deer needs to be looked at individually and to decide if he should go to 8, 9 or 10, or longer. That's how we are. No deer gets shot "just because he's old enough". But I realize not every place can operate this same way. Just a thought.

Yes I have said this for years as well. Each buck on his merits. Gotta have the right group that is dedicated to film and pictures and being on the same page with the lease boss. Plus gotta have a lease boss with a vision and an iron fist.

[panhandlehunter]

Is 5 yrs old the new young?

Letting them go to 8+yo is only for a select group of people, the right ranch and feed program, and I really think it’d have to be high fence with some intense predator management. It’s just not a reality on most places. My wife’s buck this year was 9-10 and he scored a whopping 92” as a 10. Lol. They don’t all keep getting bigger, and they don’t all live to 10. 7 yo is really probably too much for most people and most situations.

[PondPopper]

We are 7.5 on our trophies. Some bucks can be shot at 3, some at 4, and others at 5, depending on the deer. These are the rules our biologist sets. I think 7.5 for trophies is a great idea.

This is solid..

If our place was big enough(just 500 acres)or if we had better neighbors I would love to implement this program...

[lovemylegacy]

I think most of the big deer that are killed in my area are 4 or 5 when they’re aged. Kind of interesting that there’s such a difference. I’ve always heard that 7 and older start going down hill. Doesn’t mean that’s true, of course, but I’ve seen older deer go downhill that dang sure weren’t 10.

I keep quite a few cameras out and I have a hard time tracking bucks for more than a couple of years. Seems like they just come and go sometimes. I have one that I’ve watched for 4 years but most of them seem to be somewhat transient. It’s impressive that y’all can follow the same deer for so long. What are y’all putting your cameras on to get such consistent pics of the same deer?

Most times its a seasonal thing as far as getting pics. Most of the bucks on our lease are transients. But they seem to Winter on our lease. Late in the season(Dec) we also get some bucks we have never seen. So that pretty much isolates them to a regular area at a regular time.

[jshouse]

Too many variables IMO, if you hunt large property or have control via a HF then I can see the benefits of letting them get older than 5. Smaller properties or in areas with high pressure its a crap shoot IMO. You can gamble on trying to let them get that much age on them and possibly never see one that old. The "trophy" age is subjective to the area and situation. For example, my place in Houston county, we have hunted this property or close to 30 yrs and ran cameras for the past 15 or so. We have only seen a small handful of 5yr old+ deer. We do not shoot hardly any deer off it, and still don't see the age. Is it because they die of natural causes, is it because of predators, maybe hunting pressure on surrounding properties, I cannot answer that. But if we set our standards for the 5yr old plus idea then we would never kill a buck. My standard for that property is 4.5 or older, using that standard I have only killed 3 bucks since 2006 of the property.

That's hard to believe with all the great deer I see posted from Houston County, but I believe it. I know/knew a guy that grew up around Navasota and spent a lot of time hunting and running cams and he said their deer seemed to have their best antlers at 4.5.

After buying my first trail cam in 2011 it's been amazing for me to see how many bucks I have had on camera make it year after year after year, and all my places are under 100 acres.

We try our best to get our deer to 6.5 and have had a few that we are pretty confident that have made it to 9 or 10, even after being on the hit list for several years.

Bow only tends to help greatly in getting some age on your bucks...

[canny]

That's hard to believe with all the great deer I see posted from Houston County, but I believe it. I know/knew a guy that grew up around Navasota and spent a lot of time hunting and running cams and he said their deer seemed to have their best antlers at 4.5.

After buying my first trail cam in 2011 it's been amazing for me to see how many bucks I have had on camera make it year after year after year, and all my places are under 100 acres.

We try our best to get our deer to 6.5 and have had a few that we are pretty confident that have made it to 9 or 10, even after being on the hit list for several years.

Bow only tends to help greatly in getting some age on your bucks...

Yup, maybe they exist maybe they don’t. Our property is all upland site a few miles from the Neches River bottom. There are extensive tracts of River bottom property along with national forest land. Those are the largest tracts around us, most of everything is 100 acres or less, we have 350. Who knows the reasons why. My cousin killed one this weekend that looked to be 5+. I told him to save me the jaw bone. I have had a few deer that would gross in the high 140s and they were all in that 4yr old age class, based on field aging.


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[lovemylegacy]

Ok, let me say first, I am no pro at aging bucks. If a person doesn't put a tag in his ear at birth, how does one be accurate on age, without photo history. Young deer are pretty easy to determine, old deer are pretty easy, but the age category from 4-8 is more difficult. The only way I can be accurate is with photographic history.

I personally don't think anybody can be that accurate with field judging. The so called pros are 50/50 at best.

Teach, please.

[jshouse]

Ok, let me say first, I am no pro at aging bucks. If a person doesn't put a tag in his ear at birth, how does one be accurate on age, without photo history. Young deer are pretty easy to determine, old deer are pretty easy, but the age category from 4-8 is more difficult. The only way I can be accurate is with photographic history.

I personally don't think anybody can be that accurate with field judging. The so called pros are 50/50 at best.

Teach, please.

I agree without history it gets tough for a few years in there, we just try to err on the side of letting them walk if it's a new buck we don't know.

In my main spot we call the shooters "big bodies," they are usually darker gray than the other deer and I can usually tell within a few seconds, without even seeing antlers, if I'm picking my bow up.

[lovemylegacy]

I agree without history it gets tough for a few years in there, we just try to err on the side of letting them walk if it's a new buck we don't know.

In my main spot we call the shooters "big bodies," they are usually darker gray than the other deer and I can usually tell within a few seconds, without even seeing antlers, if I'm picking my bow up.

Yes, I agree. In my experience, if you look at antlers and try to base that as an aging factor, instead of using the body size, more times than not you will shoot a young buck.



Example, I saw this buck and my first inclination was to shoot, but, I didn't. The next day he crossed our lease bounds and was taken by a rifle hunter. Im not faulting the hunter, he was happy, but man what a candidate to let walk.

Age?

[lovemylegacy]

Another pic

[ROBINHOOD11]

Just let every buck get to 6 and make your decisions then.

[freerhunter16]

IMO identifying a deer early in his life and following him through, is the ONLY way to accurately field judge a buck's age as he reaches maturity. Sure, most folks can tell if a deer is "mature" or not. But, nailing down a specific age on a mature buck that you have no history with is next to impossible. I see more mature bucks than a lot of folks get to and I can show pics of numerous deer that self proclaimed experts would miss be 3 years. We target 8 years on our trophy bucks and 99% of our trophy bucks taken are deer we have followed throughout several seasons. If an unknown mature buck shows up during the season, he almost always gets a pass for at least another season unless he is very obviously a no doubt monster that is fully mature.

Every single one of our trophy bucks we have taken was much smaller at 5 years old than they were when we killed them. Sure, some deer don't "blow up" when they get to be 7+, some deer even fall apart or disappear. But, the ones that do make the risk of letting them get old worth it.

[jshouse]

IMO identifying a deer early in his life and following him through, is the ONLY way to accurately field judge a buck's age as he reaches maturity. Sure, most folks can tell if a deer is "mature" or not. But, nailing down a specific age on a mature buck that you have no history with is next to impossible. I see more mature bucks than a lot of folks get to and I can show pics of numerous deer that self proclaimed experts would miss be 3 years. We target 8 years on our trophy bucks and 99% of our trophy bucks taken are deer we have followed throughout several seasons. If an unknown mature buck shows up during the season, he almost always gets a pass for at least another season unless he is very obviously a no doubt monster that is fully mature.

Every single one of our trophy bucks we have taken was much smaller at 5 years old than they were when we killed them. Sure, some deer don't "blow up" when they get to be 7+, some deer even fall apart or disappear. But, the ones that do make the risk of letting them get old worth it.