As the season nears and I look at trailcam pics for the billionth time my subconcious seems to push me from "he needs a few years" mentality that I had a month ago to "he's not that bad...look at the sag in that belly (or whatever)"
. So, I went back AGAIN to aging websites and compared what I read to what I am seeing:
If I am doing my research correctly the deer in the middle (under the feeder) appears to be 3. I am judging this by the lack of neck to shoulder transition which means its harder to tell where the neck stops and the shoulders begin. I can't go beyond 3 because (to me) he still looks long legged and has a relatively flat stomach.
In this shot I would guess this would be the classic example of new hunter ground shrinkage. The newbie may consider the antlers tall and wide (for what many consider a "typical hill country deer") and they outsize the deer around him by a pretty large margin. However, the neck to shoulder transition is extremely distinct, he looks like he is on stilts and has no stomach whatsoever. 2 yr old.
I find this final shot interesting. Very large number of bucks for our area (around Killeen). However, not a shooter age-wise in the bunch. This tells me that either we are shooting too many bucks and not letting them mature or the mature bucks are not visiting the feeder. In the last 3 years one buck (4 1/2) has been taken off of this property and there is very little hunting around us. So, my extremely amateur analysis tells me that a case can be made that bucks truly do become more cautious with age and bury themselves deep in the brush until the does start flirting.
Your thoughts?
. So, I went back AGAIN to aging websites and compared what I read to what I am seeing:If I am doing my research correctly the deer in the middle (under the feeder) appears to be 3. I am judging this by the lack of neck to shoulder transition which means its harder to tell where the neck stops and the shoulders begin. I can't go beyond 3 because (to me) he still looks long legged and has a relatively flat stomach.
In this shot I would guess this would be the classic example of new hunter ground shrinkage. The newbie may consider the antlers tall and wide (for what many consider a "typical hill country deer") and they outsize the deer around him by a pretty large margin. However, the neck to shoulder transition is extremely distinct, he looks like he is on stilts and has no stomach whatsoever. 2 yr old.
I find this final shot interesting. Very large number of bucks for our area (around Killeen). However, not a shooter age-wise in the bunch. This tells me that either we are shooting too many bucks and not letting them mature or the mature bucks are not visiting the feeder. In the last 3 years one buck (4 1/2) has been taken off of this property and there is very little hunting around us. So, my extremely amateur analysis tells me that a case can be made that bucks truly do become more cautious with age and bury themselves deep in the brush until the does start flirting.
Your thoughts?
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