got Deer pics

blgoode

Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Oct 3, 2003
Messages
7,165
Got a trail cam behind my grandmothers house. Got some decent movement these last 2 weeks :)

doe.jpg


1st-buck.jpg
 
hoping i may need a new knife next novemberish :)

any way to age them?
 
No kidding go2amend. Not many big ones in the overall US size rule of measure.
 
... any way to age them?

Just in a general way unless you can pull a jawbone. Buck looks to me to be 2-1/2 to 5, likely on the younger side of that. Of course you know the yearling in the top pic. The doe is mature but not old. No gray faces, battle scars, tattered ears on any of them.

Nice trail cam pictures!

I can't recommend highly enough the DeWeese pattern knife in O1 steel for processing deer. I lost count this year somewhere around eight deer processed from hoof to jerky. Mine was made by Breeden from an aluminum pattern I sent to him, scaled from photos of the original Marbles DeWeese from the early 1900's. I believe he made himself a slightly larger version.
 
i agree with 99f250 he is 2-3 y/o old deer and if you give him a another year or 2 he probably have a nice rack. lol but me i hunt public land and for the meat not the rack so i would definitely take him but if your on private land and trying to manage it definitely let him walk and fill up the doe tags
 
He's probably only two years old, give him two more and he'll be huge.

I was gonna guess 2 & 1/2. He'll be very lucky to make it another 2. Healthy looking though. We've got a bunch just like him running around the neighborhood here in the D.C. Suburbs. Trouble is when you go somewhere you can hunt your lucky to see antlers at all. I believe the average age of an antlered deer taken in Maryland is 1 & 1/2 years old. Sad. BTW, I like the time stamp on the trail cam photos. I didn't know they did that. Good info.
 
showed my picture to a guy a work who has 9 years deer hunting behind him and he said for our area thats a monster buck. Just dont have many that get that large of a rack in out county. Cleveland County NC.
 
He has a pretty pronounced neck which is one other method of telling how old a buck is. He is probably 2 1/2-3 1/2 years old. Our deer where I live don't get very large in Western Oregon, (Blacktails) he looks like a 2-3 year old blacktail to me.
 
Nice racks! This will be my first year hunting in Oregon - any location hints/tips?!? ;)

I also shoot for the meat, primarily archery.

"Tagging tomorrow's 'monsters' today"
 
The cascades are a great place to get nice bucks. Biggest thing is to get out there and learn the terrain now, so you have an idea of where the deer move from and to. In another month, you can pick up the sheds as well, you can see what caliber bucks are out there as well.
I too hunt for meat, and only meat, but when you shoot a forked horn buck, you have very little meat. Get a nice 4x4 and you have enough meat to feed the family with. Blacktails aren't very big, so I prefer passing on the smaller ones to get more Lbs
 
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