At what point do you think the following species are in their prime growth age and will not grow anymore?
Please give your input, this is how I currently see it but I would like to know what you all that have experience with the animals feel.

Whitetail Deer 5-6 years old
Blackbuck antelope 4-5 years old
Fallow Deer 4-5 years old
Red Deer 5-6 years old
Axis Deer 4-5 years old
Ram 6-7 years old


Thanks for everyone that answers input. If someone has some data that shows when certain animals are in prime growth years that would be awesome.

I would personally like to see more Fallow & Axis get into the 7-9 year range before being hunted. It's a little frustrating to me to see 3 three old fallow being killed with very little palmation.

IMO based on what I see with white tails their best antlers are around 7-8. Axis over 6 and agree that fallow over 6 as well.

What forces early harvest is a combination of the risk of letting an animal reach that maturity level. Cost of letting an animal reach maturity (the improvement in scores is high in early years and levels off to a lower rate of increase later). And just plain impatience.

Very true. The longer you keep an animal the more money you have in them. The longer you keep an animal the bigger risk of them dying or loosing them for some other reason. An outfitter or land owner to keep an animal until they are at their peak of antler or horn development is going to have to charge some serious bucks to make any money on them. Then the amount of those willing to spend that kind of money goes down fast.

Rams do not take 6-7 years. I just sold a black ram that was 32 months old and he was 36"

A Fallow at 7to9yr old with good genetics will literally blow your mind. Will go on to say most whoppers you see taken are not over 5yr as others have said ranches just can't take the risk.

Based off my experience over the last 17 years of being in the business, and being able to travel to ranches all across the state it seems whitetails peak at 6/7 years of age depending on the genetic line. The northern strain genetics seem to top out a tad earlier than the South TX lines from what I've seen. On almost all of the other exotics mentioned 5-6 years of age seems to be the norm. I have seen both whitetails and axis continue to improve at 9+ years of age. Granted those jumps are far less than the "prime years", but still a gain. Like the Rancher and Don mentioned the risk vs. benefits for ranches to let these animals fully mature these days just isn't worth it. It's far more profitable to shoot them at 3-5. Overhead to run a ranch is far more than what hunters think.