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mathews338

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jackson co.
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8pt i killed this year!
 
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BSK said:
Easy 5 1/2.
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that is what i thought, i have been trying to learn how to age them and looking at all the threads posted on here and comparing my jawbones to others which you guys have aged.

i wrote 5.5 on this jaw with a marker, my thumb is covering it up in the pic. thanks to all for this great site where we can learn from each other!

here is the buck. 8pt, gross scored 121", 138lbs field dressed!
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he didn't score or weigh like alot of older bucks do but i don't care!
 
Football Hunter said:
Was he3 killed in Jackson Co?What date,just a little surprised at weight,for that old of a buck,buck nice rack,COOL!
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no he wasn't killed in jackson but that is about what you can expect weight wise around jackson co. he was killed 2nd week of november.

we have killed 10 or 11 bucks (3.5 or older) off this one piece of property in the 8 years of hunting it and this was the biggest bodied one yet! hard to believe but true.

the terrain is real steep and rugged with no farmland surrounding it, at least none close by!

i killed a 3.5yo off the property a couple of years ago that dressed out at 88lbs. it was killed on the last weekend of the season and was rutted out bad but i can't imagine that he ever weighed much over 110 or 115 pounds. here is a pic of it!
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it gross scored 123" with 19" spread and was 3.5yo, weighed 88lbs dressed.

do you think that the steep terrain with only acorns and native browse is the reason these deer do not have higher body weights?
 
Hmmm,dont know,be interesting for BSK to chime in.I would beleive about any weight for the last week,but for the 2nd week of Nov,should have been about as big as he can get.135lbs for a 5.5 is ,well,hard to beleive,not that I dont believe you.

Just seems like they should be bigger.

I killed a 10 in Smith co,many years ago,grossed around 130,he was 120 field dressed,I dont know how old he was though.

Im sure the lack of ag,contributed to the small weight of My and your deer.Nothing but rocks and cedars in the area I killed that 10 as far as I know.
 
Football Hunter said:
Hmmm,dont know,be interesting for BSK to chime in.I would beleive about any weight for the last week,but for the 2nd week of Nov,should have been about as big as he can get.135lbs for a 5.5 is ,well,hard to beleive,not that I dont believe you.

Just seems like they should be bigger.

I killed a 10 in Smith co,many years ago,grossed around 130,he was 120 field dressed,I dont know how old he was though.

Im sure the lack of ag,contributed to the small weight of My and your deer.Nothing but rocks and cedars in the area I killed that 10 as far as I know.
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kinda what i was thinking but maybe BSK or others will chime in!
 
Just like with humans, deer weights can vary daramatically between individual animals of the same age, and especially between regions.
 
BSK said:
Just like with humans, deer weights can vary daramatically between individual animals of the same age, and especially between regions.
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Very true, but may be more to the "whys" that just that.

Note that the 3 1/2 and the 5 1/2 both scored about the same.

My take is much of the reason we're seeing so many (relatively) low-scoring mature bucks is because we have a tendency to let small-antlered younger bucks walk, while we're much quicker to shoot larger-antlered younger bucks.

What I'm saying is it's "easy" for maybe even a majority of today's hunters to "let walk" a small-antlered 2 1/2. But an above average 2 1/2 in the antler department will have a much tougher time surviving to maturity, as I believe most are killed at either 2 1/2 or 3 1/2. In fact, near 100% of the top-end 2 1/2's that I photograph are killed at 2 1/2. By contrast, many with particularly small antlers end up being repeatedly "passed up" by hunters EVEN WHEN THEY BECOME MATURE BUCKS.

BSK, do you think it's possible that bucks with particularly small antlers may actually become "conditioned" to feel much safer moving around in daylight? Sometimes they seem to walk around with that "sense of impunity" like you've described female deer in areas which have gone many years with only "buck only" deer hunting.

IMO, the main reason many of us are seeing so many relatively small-antlered mature bucks is because of this "antler high grading" whereby mainly the small-antlered bucks survive to maturity.
 
Antler high-grading may be a problem. However, I doubt it is a wide-spread or serious problem. We still have enough hunters that will shoot anything with antlers. However, antler high-grading would be most likely in areas where hunters ARE PASSING UP YOUNG BUCK. Small-antlered older bucks are mistaken for young bucks, hence are passed over at a higher rate than larger antlered bucks of the same age.

The only way to answer the question of whether smaller antlered bucks have less fear of hunters would be to understand how deer learn that humans are dangerous, and we really don't know the answer to "how deer learn."
 
Football Hunter said:
BSK said:
Just like with humans, deer weights can vary daramatically between individual animals of the same age, and especially between regions.
Click to expand...
Yeah,but 135 for a 5.5 in mid November seems awful light,gotta be habitat
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weights and scores start to pick up about 3 or 4 miles southwest of this spot due to the habitat IMO. it starts to flatten out with corn and beans being grown. my 2nd cousin hunts there and he as killed bucks that avg 10" more and weigh 20,30,40lbs more.
 
I agree its habitat, but again, major differences in regional habitat. Look at the tiny body weights of deer on some WMA's compared to others.
 

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