At the time of the pic, I thought he may be 3 due to the tine length. I probably would have shot him but I killed a different buck the day after this pic. So I didn't spend much time in my best stands that year. I never saw him in person.
If he is 2 in 2010, 3 in 2011 then he has to be 4 here.
He picked up a sticker on the backside of his left main beam.
Saw him for the first time on November 3rd 2012. It was an all day sit that was slow and he showed up at 3:00 tending a doe. He snort wheezed at a forky but ignored my grunts and wheezes. They were within 50 yards for at least an hour. It was very thick and I could barely see his rack most of the time.
I saw him the same year on Thanksgiving morning. He was following a family group of does. They went under a tree where I had a stand all season but had moved a week before. I had just filled my buck tag so couldn't shoot him anyway. They spent the morning in a thicket and I could see trees shaking from his rubbing and he would grunt. He seems to have patience with the ladies. He does not chase and pressure them like a young buck.
Over the years I have a lot of summer pics of him at the salt lick. My stealth cam was dying this year and I missed much of the season of pic taking. I live 2 hours away and when camera dies, it takes a before I know.
This is one of the few hard antler pics I got that year due to camera problems.
I hunted a new location for the first time the morning of October 27th. He was the first deer to walk by at an iffy 40-45 yards. I am not solid at that distance so I just watched. I moved my stand that day to be closer to his travel line.
Early that November in the new location, he is once again the first buck to come by. He walks within 20 yards and is facing me but on a trail that would put him broadside at 10 yards. He stops to make a scrap and work a branch. When he is lifting his head for the branch, he is looking directly up at me. He knew something was wrong and took several steps straight backward. He then hopped about 10 yards farther away in the brush where I didn't have a chance with an arrow. Snorted two times and walked away.
These last two encounters are in a pinch point between a small river and beaver swamp.
After discussing my encounter with Dad, we decided that I need to move the stand since he saw me. I parked at mid day to walk in a do a quick move. He was bedded within 50 yards of where I parked. I took two steps from a vehicle and up he jumps and runs away. I was shocked. Apparently mature bucks don't spend the entire rut with does. He was bedded by himself. I still moved the stand but never saw him again.
My neighbor has had several encounters with this buck but like me, he could never get the shot. He lives on the property so he knows the deer better than me. He claimed to have no sitings or pics and thinks the deer is dead.
This is the only pic I got the entire year. I think it is him.
Great documentation an great buck! I enjoy these type threads. It's awesome to watch the progression of body build/size and antler development over several+ yrs!!!!
He may live. I have a few thousand pics from my plot and salt lick this summer that I need to go through. I have some early summer pics that make me think he lives. I will update if I do identify him.
Here is a contender. This buck looks very old to me. The tall tines buck typically was very identifiable by this time of year. But if he is alive, he is old and maybe the rack won't look the same.
Here is another contender. I got fancy and hung my salt lick camera higher. I've had a camera on this spot every summer since I got my first cam. It was dumb to mess with success. I missed more racks due to the camera angle so I don't have a lot of good ones to compare.