A Buck on the Move

Mossyhorn

Mossyhorn

Enlightened Rogue
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I was taking a hike Friday morning when I saw this young buck that was hot on the trail of a doe.

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Yup, he is all about the ladies right now. Hopefully he gets a free pass for a few more seasons, he is sort of a lean, lanky teenager right now.
 
He'll gat a free pass this year. A buck has to have 3 or more points at least an inch long to be legal.
 
Here's the photo that I took at the doe that I saw first. She hung around for awhile but stayed in the thick cover.

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Is that a cut behind his shoulder or just a spot from something.?? Looks like he might have lost a fight or two plus all the chasing is making him lose the pounds.! Be a nice Buck if he can survive another two years or so.!**
 
wolf-man-12 said:
Is that a cut behind his shoulder or just a spot from something.?? Looks like he might have lost a fight or two plus all the chasing is making him lose the pounds.! Be a nice Buck if he can survive another two years or so.!**
Click to expand...

I isolated the area that looks like a possible wound. It does look deeper and wider than the other marks on his body. Where he disappeared into the thick cover, I could see a very fresh buck rub. It could be a wound from a buck chasing him off. He may be a nice buck in a couple of years.

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We have a monster 4 point Mulie hangin around the house. He has been here off and on for about a month.
His neck is all swelled up, and he has one thing on his mind :D I can tell by watching the Doe's, they are getting really tired of him lol
 
It's always amazing to me how deer can literally disappear into thick cover.

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The OP buck looks to me to be a 1 1/2 year-old, a lanky teenager entering his first early rut. I doubt that he has really lost weight with so much browse availble. More likely he just doesn't have it yet. I have one of those hanging on my gambrel this morning. We have a large herd here and a very liberal limit and long season. Young deer don't yield as much meat, but are generally better eating in my opinion.
 
I think you're correct about the age Codger. I first saw him in a meadow with a bunch of dried up goldenrod. You can see the flakes hanging on his hide. I had to get my camera ready in a hurry before he was gone. That buck is not big enough to be legal in PA.
He'd need another point on his rack in this area. You can see that his neck is not thick like most rutting bucks. There is an abundance of hickory nuts and walnuts in the area. In just over a week, the area looks much different now with a lot of the foliage gone. Next
year, I hope he's smart enough not to hang out in open areas at 10:30 in the morning.
 
Cool! It is interesting how game laws (seasons, limits, definitions of "legal deer") translate to hunter ethics over time and area. "Back in the day", it was illegal to kill does where I hunted. And the limit was one buck, a buck being defined as an antlered deer with antlers over a certain number of points a certain length. All this imposed while rebuilding the deer herd became so ingrained in area hunter ethics that many had trouble adjusting their beliefs when seasons, bag limits and definitions changed with the changing herd demographics. Likewise with changes in definitions of "legal killing devices" and methods. My grandpa took a nice buck back in the 1950's when regs were very tight. I still have that set of antlers. It may have been the only buck he ever killed after the war when game laws changed and depression era hunting gave way to game management programs to increase herds via manipulation of age and sex averages. He would have a hissy fit with my regs here today. No hounds. No buckshot. I can take up to three antlered bucks and a total harvest, if I hunted all seasons, methods and zones, of over thirty deer a year. Including buttons, yearlings just losing their spots, old and young does. He would consider such to be highly unethical. This state now has more than a million whitetail deer. And it requires a large harvest to keep numbers in check and provide for a healthy sustainable herd.
 
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