A buck is mature at 4.5 no matter where he lives. A buck is immmature less than 4.5 no matter where he lives.

That's like asking is your sister mature at 16 in Florida vs 16 in TN.

A buck is mature at 4.5 no matter where he lives. A buck is immmature less than 4.5 no matter where he lives.

The biggest problem, biologically, when talking about mature bucks is the lack of information concerning these age bucks. Most states don't collect detailed data on mature bucks. If they break down ages at all, most states just break harvested buck ages down to the three categories of 1 1/2, 2 1/2, and 3 1/2+.

BSK... on avg, which age does a bucks antlers start to decline?

Darn good question that doesn't have a good answer. It appears to be a regional/sub-species process. The northern whitetail (borealis) seems to keep getting bigger until very late in life (even 8 or 9 years old). On the other hand, TX whitetails appear to peak at around 6 1/2. The same should be true for bucks in the Southeast, but one thing I've noticed several times is that bucks in TN often peak in tine and beam length at 4 1/2, then lose some tine and beam length at 5 1/2 but add more mass and sticker points. The result on score is still probably an increase in gross score from 4 1/2 to 5 1/2, but a decrease in net score.

What happens beyond that age is difficult to say. The problem is getting a large enough data set to say anything with conviction. To date, I can count on one hand the number of TN bucks I've been able to photograph at 6 1/2+. BGG and I have discussed this several times and we honestly believe that in the wild few bucks live to 6 1/2+. TX is so unique in their land-ownership patterns that I don't think you can consider TX bucks to be "in the wild."