Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Just curious, are you generally relying on a shooter from the current year to make it through the season for next year or relying on a 3.5-4.5 to make it through and put on enough inches to make the mark?
Question for guys hunting larger antlered deer…
- Thread starter Howboutthemdawgs
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Catscratch
5 year old buck +
Both.
Turkey Creek
5 year old buck +
Hoping that younger deer get older and increase their inches. I don't have any current deer that I consider to be older than 4.5 yo.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
You don’t count on the game ranch!
I have a 3 yr old or two that looks good, a number of already shooters that will probably make it through this year, and always some hope for a new deer or two just to show up. Our 4 yr old deer are probably at or close to their peak. Typical 6 yr olds will lose a point or even two after they are four. Hope to shoot them when they are 4 yrs old and at their peak and probably settle for them when they are six and lost a point or two.
Booner21
5 year old buck +
I am not picky and will take them anyway I can get them. I am hoping to get them to 5 in most of the spots I have don’t care as much about rack size as I do age.
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Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
For sure me too, just curious if it’s more common for folks to have an already mature deer to make it or a younger deer blown up?
It is more common for me to have an already mature deer 5 or 6 year old. Our highest scoring deer are 4 yr olds. Might be one - two at very most. May have three or four older deer. By the time they are 7, dont want to shoot them anyway
I typically have success with some making it through. That said; They may or may not spend the majority of their time on the farm (seeing them all the time vs seeing them with some consistency). My favs are the big guys that summer, venture off at antler shed and then come back around thanksgiving for the winter. I can kill them most of the time.
I struggle the most with the big roamers that have random pics through out the year. We typically have an influx of younger deer (as the age structure is trash here) as hunting intrusion elsewhere picks up. Obviously the same occurs when have the last standing ag as our farmer typically doesnt have his chit together., or the same for a good cover crop. Weather and ag dictate alot for draw here. Why this matters is when the variables line up- i will wait for a shooter to show whether local and know or an incomer.
This year we lost most every buck we had. Last year was the same. Very poor influx as it seemed like our ag, and even the neighboring farms, never drew the deer in. Hope and Luck arent kind to my hunting. I prefer to target a buck and forget all other deer. Make a few tactical attempts to kill him.
The family farm is in high pressure hell. Raising a specific deer is more along the lines of see if we have a >3yo and there's a chance. 3&under can die at any moment. Off ag years, early harvest, this or that can have the grow'em strategy worthless too.
Short answer- it depends....
I struggle the most with the big roamers that have random pics through out the year. We typically have an influx of younger deer (as the age structure is trash here) as hunting intrusion elsewhere picks up. Obviously the same occurs when have the last standing ag as our farmer typically doesnt have his chit together., or the same for a good cover crop. Weather and ag dictate alot for draw here. Why this matters is when the variables line up- i will wait for a shooter to show whether local and know or an incomer.
This year we lost most every buck we had. Last year was the same. Very poor influx as it seemed like our ag, and even the neighboring farms, never drew the deer in. Hope and Luck arent kind to my hunting. I prefer to target a buck and forget all other deer. Make a few tactical attempts to kill him.
The family farm is in high pressure hell. Raising a specific deer is more along the lines of see if we have a >3yo and there's a chance. 3&under can die at any moment. Off ag years, early harvest, this or that can have the grow'em strategy worthless too.
Short answer- it depends....
Gravel Road
5 year old buck +
Ideally, I like to watch them grow until they are 5.5+. Rarely works out though, as too many get killed by other bucks during the rut or simply disappear.
I have an across the road neighbor with 1400 acres under high fence. I help him burn in the winter and it is alarming the number of older dead bucks we found while burning. He said with the 1.1 buck doe ratio he maintained, a lot of them died to fighting each other.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Same experience at my buddies place. I’ve found several deadheads shed hunting
Seems most years we have a couple nice ones ready to move up as well.
Gravel Road
5 year old buck +
Yes, I find them quite often after a burn, including this one (174). Last year a 160 was found dead fresh from a buck fight. Took a tine right into the lung and killed him.
A 4.5 yo that I've watched every year just showed up on camera this week with a big abscess on his face and his eye swollen shut from a fight. Hope he makes it. It's a rough life!
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I go for maturity also,like tonight I have a big 6pt that always bullies other bucks around and he smashed my decoy tonight.I will shoot him the 31st given the chance. I saw the most aggressive buck fight last night between a 150 10pt and a 1 sided buck.I also found a shed tonight in same field that had alot of skull so must have come out in a fight.These bucks aren't acting rutty they are acting aggressive towards other bucks so i can see how right now they could get severely injured
Brian662
5 year old buck +
Depends which property and which state, to be honest.
Many differences between my two MN properties even though they are only a few miles apart. Most of that has to do with parcel size, neighbor impacts, and quality of cover. At my house I get to watch more deer and see them grow, rarely do they get to 5 years old here and even then they aren't huge, 150" is a very big buck for this micro area. Down the road I have a small(er) parcel where the neighbor size is larger, but the pressure is still high. There are some real chances for 160-180" deer over there although I need to do some work to my property to get those big mature deer to spend more time over there. Usually always a good one that survives and another one or two that blow up in this area, my guess is slightly improved genetics with better age opportunity.
ETA: The deer density is pretty high at my home property and much lower 3 miles down the road.
In WI, that property had three 160"+ shooters my first year on the property, and I tagged one. Another one got shot opening day of rifle, and one survived. I tagged him this year but there wasn't another shooter (my criteria) on the property. There was one other shooter very infrequently this summer but never saw a pic of him hard horned. There were several up and comers that I hope make it to replenish the stock for next year. Time will tell.
Deer density is very high on this property as well. We'll be working on that this weekend.
Many differences between my two MN properties even though they are only a few miles apart. Most of that has to do with parcel size, neighbor impacts, and quality of cover. At my house I get to watch more deer and see them grow, rarely do they get to 5 years old here and even then they aren't huge, 150" is a very big buck for this micro area. Down the road I have a small(er) parcel where the neighbor size is larger, but the pressure is still high. There are some real chances for 160-180" deer over there although I need to do some work to my property to get those big mature deer to spend more time over there. Usually always a good one that survives and another one or two that blow up in this area, my guess is slightly improved genetics with better age opportunity.
ETA: The deer density is pretty high at my home property and much lower 3 miles down the road.
In WI, that property had three 160"+ shooters my first year on the property, and I tagged one. Another one got shot opening day of rifle, and one survived. I tagged him this year but there wasn't another shooter (my criteria) on the property. There was one other shooter very infrequently this summer but never saw a pic of him hard horned. There were several up and comers that I hope make it to replenish the stock for next year. Time will tell.
Deer density is very high on this property as well. We'll be working on that this weekend.
Howboutthemdawgs
5 year old buck +
Yeah this is what I was getting at. I don’t have a no doubt shooter anymore. Had 4 coming into the season. One disappeared so most likely dead as it was a homebody. One the neighbor shot, one I shot and one is still hanging around but he is borderline. So my only hope is one of the younger deer blow up.
Just didn’t know for the guys who consistently hunt big deer, how the end of the season usually looks for you. Are you consistently waiting on the next cohort or do you usually have shooters make it through?
As far as new deer moving in, so far on this place (2 seasons so small sample size) I haven’t seen it. The deer I’m hunting this year were present last year.
Brian662
5 year old buck +
I've always heard/read that new mature bucks will slot into openings left by other deer if the habitat is desirable. I hope for your sake and mind that's true. I guess we'll find out next year.
Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Both ways for me, but will most likely be a good 3 or 4 year old blowing up by adding 30 or 40 inches in one year. This boy made it through gun and late ML, which means he has a good chance of being here next year unless he gets poached. He won’t add 30 inches, but he should add a reasonable amount of mass.
T-Max
5 year old buck +
Odd you say that. My cams were full of fighting activity last night. Both bucks and does. A couple were even smaller bucks in a knock down drag out kind of fight. Very random aggressive behavior.
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