AGE THE 8 (MOSTLY FOR TEXAS BUCKEYE)

Ok anyone that wants to give aging this buck a shot then have at it. This thread is mostly a spin off of another thread for Texas Buckeye to take a shot at but anyone else is welcome to try and age him if you want as well.

These pics aint that great because they are screen shots taken before I deleted my SD cards but there should be enough here to work with. I do know the age of this buck with almost 100% certainty.

Go!!

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I won't try to give a specific age but I will say he is old. Mature if you like that word better.

He has scarred up knees, huge rump (rutted down in one of the pics pretty good) thick shield on his forehead showing years of battles. Thick shoulders and big hips. Just a big bodied mature deer. Sag in the neck line showing where his shoulders are big and muscular. big stains on the hocks.

Notice the lack of a deep brisket, because his chest is so heavy. Notice the lack of a sag in the back. Notice the lack of a low lying belly. There are other things that point to age in this guy.

As I mentioned in the other thread, there are a lot of younger deer that are going to get shot this year due to hunters thinking they are older due to these traits in healthy well fed young middle aged 3.5-4.5 yo deer (not saying young deer, but the bottom of the middle aged class). And then everyone will wonder where that age class went in two years...

the deer in the other thread did not look like this deer.

Are all of those pics from the same season?

Yes. All December 2016 I believe.

Was my first thought

Wow, its amazing to me what a deers stance does to make certain strutures look small versus larger...if these are all dec 2016 pics the rump looks smaller in some and larger in other simply based on stance and not being rutted down, unless he was running hard in December and your area ruts late...

Ok I will consider "old" as the correct answer because the truth is nobody was going to get the age of that deer correct.

Me and my Dad as well as a few other hunters over the years on our lease have had a history of this buck dating all the way back to 2007 when he was a 4 year old. A few years ago we thought his luck had run out because he developed what we thought was a large tumor in his groin area and was not looking too good. The next year he showed up without the tumor and looking as healthy as ever. We now assume the "tumor" was probably either a snake bite or some sort of infection caused by a cactus needle or mesquite thorn.

He almost always shows up in late September or early October but last year he didn't. With no game cam pics we assumed his age had caught up with him. Then just after Thanksgiving last year another hunter got some pics of him so I went and pulled my camera cards and had pics of him again as well.

As for his age......at 13 years old (last year) he is probably one of the oldest free range Whitetails you will ever see. I have cameras out right now hoping to catch a glimpse of him again this year. I saw him in person the very end of last season so I know he made it through another deer season.

Damn, I wasn't even close, Lol.

That's impressive. For anyone to guess a lf native deer to reach 13 would be loony. But, if you have the proof. That's awesome. And he didn't look run down or anything for being that old. Impressive. Are we sure he didn't have a twin son or grandson that is just playing the part? Seriously, I would not think a 13 yo buck could look that good body-wise...impressive animal!

Can't win them all doc..

I was debating middle aged and old. Likely would have gone with a classic "mature" pinning down one number is just hard with no experience with the deer.

I have game cam and video proof for all but 2 of the last 10 years of his life. Those 2 years he vacated the area I hunt he was occupying the area directly to the west of me and that hunter has the proof for those 2 years. If I didn't have all those pics scattered on countless memory sticks and hard drives I would post them in order for everyone to see. I may work on that this winter when I am at the lease and don't have internet access. LOL

Lol. His face looks really young to be 13 and body looks to be in great shape.

Did some digging and came up with these 3 fairly quickly.

First pic is him at 9 years old.

Second pic is him at 10 years old. This is when he had the groin issue. If you look close you can kind of see it.

Last pic is him at 11 years old.

Crazy, that deer at 10 looks like most deer at 4.5 except for his saggy brisket. Same rack every single year too, Lol.

man what a survivor. Not too bad genetically to have around, not superb, but not bad. At least he wasn't a small basket 8 that you couldn't shoot due to ARs

except for the calluses on his knees

And here he is at 12 years old.




So from 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 you can see he didn't change much with his rack. And the only time he really looked bad as far as health is concerned was at 10 when he had the groin issue.

I think my other pics are on a hard drive somewhere. I know all I have of him is video footage from when he was 4 in 2007. That footage is on a Digital 8 tape some place but its really good at a distance of only 10-12 yards. If I can round up all those pics and get that footage to up load some how this fall I will update this thread. Maybe....just maybe I will even get some pics this year at 14 years old.

Wait a minute, scrotum size is a sign of maturity? Well I ain't mature yet, and redchevy said I got too big for my britches, so I guess if my scrotum isn't big yet (because I ain't mature) then it can only be the other piece of the hardware....

Incredible that he has lived so long.

It's so hard for me to age deer. I can guess young, mature, & post mature. And that's still kinda iffy.

Hopefully, you'll get a shot at him this season.

That's really cool that you have been able to follow him that long. We had a ten year old 8 point on our ranch that finally disappeared last year. We just bow hunt so our deer die of old age before we shoot them.

I actually targeted this deer 2 years ago. It was the first year he became fairly predictable. All I had to do was just wait for the right wind and then slip into my bow stand about 2 hours before daylight because I knew he usually showed up about 1 hour before daylight. One morning I finally got the wind I needed and started my long walk to my bow stand. I got about 25 yards from my stand and I heard a deer take off running. After the hunt I pulled my camera card and he had beaten me to the stand that morning and it was him that I bumped out of there. That was early/mid October I believe. I didn't get another pic of him again untill around Christmas.

He aint the biggest, or the prettiest deer I have ever hunted. He is by far the smartest and oldest though!! I have only seen this deer in person 3 times in the nearly 10 years I have known him. After he busted me in 2007 I didn't see him again in person until 2015. I have pretty much decided he is impossible to bow hunt.

At this point if I got the chance at him I am not sure I would even take it. My history with him is so deep I would almost feel bad about killing him.

That's cool. I think I would let him walk. Wave hi and goodbye at the same time not knowing if he would survive to 14...

Just a little bit of a update on this buck.

I was at the lease this weekend and pulled the camera cards. He has made it to 14 years old now!!!! He still looks very healthy but his rack took a nose dive this year for the first time. He is still unmistakable but smaller. I will try to get some pics of him posted in the next couple of days. I have to go back through about 40K pics to find them.

Here he is at age 14 this year.
The date stamp on the pictures is wrong. For some reason my old Primos 35 cameras are not recognizing the 2017 date despite the fact I have them set correctly.

The amount of shield he has on his forehead is crazy. Amazing. You can see age in his face, but not 14...

It’s one nobody would believe unless you showed them the pics...