How often do you get "big" deer on camera?
- Thread starter DeerCamp
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I'd say at bases looks 3.5"-4". And he's got a couple more stickers than I seen in first video. My thoughts are he's a huge 3.5yr old or late born 4yr old. His mostly nocturnal behavior fits that age profile, too. In my experience, 5yr+ olds have been easier to target and hunt than 3yr & 4yr olds just because the younger bucks roam all over the country and move a whole lot through the night. Seems once they get a little age on them they tend to stay closer to the safety of their core, and their core shrinks. I've noticed many of the old ones also get to a point where they say screw it and seem to lose fear, then start daylighting frequently at all times of day. I don't know if that behavior is old injures catching up, or their minds are slipping, or what. But in my experience hunting an old buck is actually easier than hunting one in his prime. The problem is having one to hunt.
WilcoKen
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Great feedback. He didnt show up last year. These 2 images are what I think was him 2 years ago. Short brows and you can just see the sticker on left G2. If it is him, I have no idea his true age. But it would point to the loss of some fear. Previous years videos show him to be very cautious. That video last night showed him as being curious. That sort of shocked me.
140" buck is hard to find in East Tennessee. I've had a few over the years, but not many. Most mature bucks where I am are 120"-130".
Yep same deer. That makes me wrong on his age then. These southern deer give me fits trying to estimate age, and this guy is a perfect example. He looks exactly the same as he did 2yrs ago. Further confirms my suspicion that I've been misjudging, grossly underestimating the age of bucks I have here. I've been thinking I don't get any old bucks because none of the bucks look old. The buck in your pic is deep into maturity yet he still looks young.
Boll Weevil
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^This. If it weren't for pic history we have with some bucks we'd absolutely be misjudging too. Mark Twain wrote something along the lines of "Breeding is as important in a man as it is in a horse." Some people age well while others don't...I gotta figure deer are no different.
Same here in southern middle TN. I've not seen the first 140" deer on the hoof in the 7yrs I've lived here. I'm pretty sure I've not even seen a 130".
WilcoKen
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What is encouraging is your assessment of how 5+ year old bucks seem to lose some caution. He may just slip up here soon. If I am blessed enough to take him I will get him aged.
As it relates to this thread--I've got a couple more bucks that will hopefully show up again on camera next year. A 10 that should crack 140 then.
If not for trail cams I would think every rack buck I see is a 2yr old. I killed a 10pt this season that I'd swear was a 3yr old if not for the fact that I've had him on camera since 2019 sporting almost the same rack the entire time. He couldn't have weighed more than 150lbs. His rack looks big on his tiny body but it barely busts 120". Aside from getting a little grey he never did get the classic old buck looks, and I bet his rack hasn't grown 20" in the 4yrs I've been watching him.
Yessir I like your chances. The buck I posted above has been on camera at least since 2019, putting him at minimum 5yrs old. He was somewhat regular in 2019, only spent the first half of summer in 2020, came back cruising does during rut last year, and this year he set up permanent camp. He was completely sporadic & unpredictable. Not only did I never actually see him on the hoof, none of my cameras ever caught him in a field. He was always in cover. A couple times last year I actually caught him on cam chasing does and they crossed the fence into a cattle pasture. He hits the breaks and skidded to the edge, then stared out into the pasture for just a moment before turning around. Even the girls couldn't bring him out in the open.
Fast forward to this season and I've seen him 4 times while hunting, all in the open. When I shot him he was high heading like a peacock around a doe out in the middle of the pasture. Didn't have a worry in the world. Two days before that I had spooked him at the edge of that same field, at the same time of morning. Even then he wasn't scared. He just trotted off out of my way, never raising his tail. These old bucks just seem throw caution to the wind when they get old. Kind of reminds me of my 75yr old dad. He acts like he's 14 again, worries us all to death.
My Ohio buck this season was same way. He I believe was 6yrs or more. Same thing been getting him on cam for years and was super reclusive and unpredictable until this year. I got more daylight pics of him this season than I have all the other years combined. And until this season I'd only seen him once, which was last season. He was getting pretty brave then, but he wasn't the deer I was after yet. This year it was a no brainer. He was easy. They're really not difficult to hunt. You just have to be where one is living. That in itself is the hardest part, IMO, because old bucks are pretty dang rare to begin with.
BSK
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Amazing how differently bucks will act in different areas. We've had mature bucks consistently using my place for 20 years. In all that time not only has a mature buck never been killed out of an opening or food plot, a mature buck has never been seen by a hunter in an opening or food plot. Even trail-camera pictures/videos of mature bucks in openings/plots in daylight are exceptionally rare. Once they hit 4 years old in my area, they become ghosts, only seen on trail-camera at night. If it weren't for the rut driving a little daylight chasing, we'd never kill a mature buck.
wobblegobble
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we have 140's each year and on the older deer losing fear...I agree but not at 5 year old...We see it around 6 year old deer and older. The 5 year olds are peak deer for us and are hard to kill but get easier there after.
BSK
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That's fascinating.
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I concur, I get more daylight pics and sightings of deer once they reach 5.5 than I do any of my 3.5 or 4.5 yr old deer. I think they get so comfortable in areas even though there is hunting pressure that they think they are safe.oddly enough it seems when I get a deer to that age using my property, he doesn't travel very far either.
That's about the only time I ever see 3yr & 4yr olds. It's hard to predict when or if I'll see one, and when I do it's usually one from somewhere else that I don't recognize.
That is exactly what I see. When they get to that point, they huddle down tight to an area and don't go far, but they do move A LOT inside it. When I'm fortunate enough that one of those areas is on my place or a place I can hunt, I get excited because I know my odds are good.
BSK
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We usually have 5-year-olds, and the occasional 6-year-old, but never kill them (almost never). They are ghosts.
