Inside Spread?
- Thread starter Mortenson
- Start date
ghilliehunter
5 year old buck +
Nice wide buck. I've killed one buck with a 20 inch inside spread. Your buck is 20" inside.
Peplin Creek
5 year old buck +
I am going to guess. 18 1/2 inside. Pictures always makes the look wider than they are. I am guessing about 14-15 inches from ear to ear. Once he loses velvet I think he look a little smaller. Either way, I hope for your sake I am wrong and you get to tell me that too. Haha. Good luck I hope you get him.
tynimiller
5 year old buck +
Spread is one thing that grows without velvet actually. I'd guess he is pushing but shy of 20 inches.
bigbendmarine
5 year old buck +
Mortenson, if that buck was in my neck of the woods I would guess 4.5+ (emphasis on the "+"), and not just talking horns... face looks grizzled / older, and really square bodied with deep brisket for 3.5. Regardless, heck of a buck. Hope others can help you pin down a more accurate / confident age on him. Again, if in my neck of the woods I would be thinking of harvesting him in fear that future years might actually see him declining.
S.T.Fanatic
5 year old buck +
To me his body says he's 4.5 but he doesn't have the antler mass you would expect. Tough call.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
If it were me, I would take him in and age him, and measure the spread, to be sure :)
Chainsaw
5 year old buck +
I've never seen a deer with a spread like that. Here outside measurement ear to ear goes from 16 to 18 inches. Ear length can be 6 to 8 inches depending how the ear is held at the moment. Transfixing the deer's ear to the left over unfilled inside dimension easily puts it at more than twenty inches from my perspective. I'm seeing 5 inches blank space plus 17 or 18 equals 22 to 23 inches. Body size is good but not pushing an older age and mass on the first two pictures looks to be barely 4 inches. Many of you sure do have deer in your areas with unreal racks compared to the deer here of similar age though. I look forward to seeing what he is next year if he makes it.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
Thanks to all who are commenting on this. I find it very interesting, all your perspectives. I have a set of pictures of the same deer from last year. I can post those for a reference as it seems like a good learning exercise. I am now questioning if it perhaps is an older deer that will just never have antler mass or a hulking body. I really think the rack didn't get any bigger than last year's. The body may have gotten bigger. Faces are tricky. His face doesn't look like what I'd call young. The other deer in last year's set was said to be 4.5 by a biologist at the check station, for comparison. It clearly had a larger body.
tynimiller
5 year old buck +
The only thing holding me back from saying he is really old is the fact "typically" once a deer starts nearing or hitting 6 or more years they exhibit stickers or drooping tips and such. This buck is reminding me of a buck we suspect as being 5.5 at my property which just sadly doesn't add antler any longer. I call him Mr. Piggy because everything about his body screams mature and he is...but he probably is just a measly 110 inch 8 point.
Your deer however is a much better specimen in the antler category and I like some others feel fairly confident saying he's 4.5 minimum....his neck line deep into brisket, shoulder definition and roman nose makes me not a bit surprised if you harvest him and find out he's older. I'd target him for his age alone...but his rack isn't a slouch either honestly.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
This deer was killed by fence sitting neighbor on opening morning yesterday. It had snapped off a g3 at the beam. I don't know if he shot over the line, but he did contact me saying the deer was dead in ours and he wanted to drag it out.
Sitting in the rain now. No Deer seen yet this morning. Could be a good afternoon.
Sitting in the rain now. No Deer seen yet this morning. Could be a good afternoon.
Plottin'booners
5 year old buck +
Did you by chance get a measurement of the inside spread?
Chainsaw
5 year old buck +
Sorry to hear that, bad break. Some that sit on the fence line seem to think nothing of it; it's hard for me to see their point of view on that. They basically get to hunt on us without the risk of getting caught trespassing. I guess that's one of the compelling reasons to make our boundary areas significantly unattractive to deer as compared to the rest of our property. Three different fence sitters that were caught retrieving "their" deer without permission claimed they shot them on their side of the fence and they ran over; each deer was shot resulting in a broken backbone. The first one I let go and many years later he still sits on the fence-dummy me. On the second and third deer the warden agreed that they could not have run over to my property after being shot and tickets were issued. Neither of them have been seen sitting on the fence line again.
I have accompanied anyone asking for permission to retrieve deer ever since then and ask to see the blood trail on their property before looking for "their" deer. All asking have been legitimate since the two arrests of many years ago.
Apple Junkie
5 year old buck +
Ouch... that's a bitch.
