We shoot a few 2-3 year old culls each year. This deer was a 6 point with a little fishook off his main beam his first yr. (2015) No tine length at all. Last year his frame appeared to almost double in size, he added one tine and his drop was about 2 inches. But still didn't have a tine over 4 inches. He scored about 100. This year, when I saw the below August photo of him in velvet, I put him on our hit list figuring he would never be much. No one has seen him since, but we just got some photos of him from the past couple weeks. Holy cow was I wrong on this one! Note: this deer is 3 1/2 so don't ever base your age decisions solely on a Roman nose.

Holy moly! That's a helluva deer! Cool pics. Thanks for sharing that!

Holy cow he's half Elk...

Great sequence! He's a cool character, glad you were wrong on him.

That's why we don't cull until they reach maturity. But we don't have any carrying capacity issues where we hunt, so alot depends on where your hunting and habitat numbers I'm sure. Thanks for sharing.

He’s got an old man’s face and a young man’s body.

thats legit!!

For those of you still hunting, our bucks are all showing up in their core areas. Lots of deer we haven't seen all season are right back where they were in Sept/Oct.

Nice Buck fouzman, I have also noticed the Big Bucks are out and about now!

Sooooo......don't shoot spikes......

Wow! I need to show this to my group for sure.

Great pics where's the ones of it on the ground?

In other words, he had two branched antlers his first year and did not qualify as a spike, correct?

Correct, Dan.

Those won't come for at least another 3 years.

Incredible buck! Would never in a million years judge him to be 3.5 yo.

Wow, great looking buck. I'm not saying your wrong, but pics 2-5 just don't compute as a 3 year old to me.

Not to me either, red. But I know without a doubt the deer is 3 1/2. Looks like he may have broken his nose fighting, but had he walked in on me when I was hunting a couple weeks ago, I'm sure I would have called him at least four. We have some really large bodied deer on our place. The deer I killed 12/30 probably weighed 235-240 lbs before the rut. He weighed 185 when I killed him.

Great looking buck. I don't see 3yo based off the neck size into the brisket in those last pics. If he is definitely 3 it is amazing the body differences in different areas or natural browse vs protein deer body wise.

In the August pic his points are still very round, which usually suggests his antlers may still be growing. I wouldn't say this is a thread about culling so much as it is a thread about when to construct your hit list (maybe wait for hard-antler?).

Also, that is one helluva 3 yr old. I know you have your data, but I'm with the others that those pics sure would have fooled us.

Would have fooled me, too! I'll find his year one and two photos and post them this evening if I can. I may have to wait until I get back down to the ranch as all of our photo history on different bucks is down there.

Great pics and info fouz. Without any history on him I too would have called him at least a 4 or maybe even a rutted down 5 yr. old. Some or our bucks are showing back up in their home areas as well but also still seeing some strangers passing through that we don't have any camera pics of. If history holds true our bucks (and most deer) will become almost non-existent toward the end of January and through February as far as seeing them feeding on corned roads. A person would tend to believe they would flock to feed to rebuild following the rut but that has not been the case the last 8-10 years.

Great post fouz!!! Really like threads like this, they challenge what we think we know. Aging deer is not a science, it's an educated GUESS for EVERYONE without concrete data through pics and knowing "your" deer.

Great buck!!

if you are "culling" mature deer you're not really culling, you're just shooting mature deer that score what they score....

.....this buck was a 6pt w/ a drop his first year..... not exactly roll of the dice keeping him around, even w/ the small tine length

ANY branching of the antlers during the second year, however small, seems to be the key indication of a 1-1/2 year old buck that should be allowed to walk.

No question, the ability to share photos and discuss them has made a significant impact on what we are learning about buck development. It has also given us the opportunity to validate the accuracy of what biologists have been preaching to us.

Wow, awesome to see that progression. Good share and GREAT buck