I’m originally from MS and new to hunting in Texas. Wanted to get your opinion on the age of this deer. Photos are from game cams close to Stephenville, TX.

Healthy 4.5-5.5 yo

If call him 4.5. Doesn’t quite have the sag. Good lookn buck!

Be careful in wet years. Looking at him at a glance I want to say 4-5.... but looking at the protein feeder and the green condition of the pasture and knowing how much rain we have had in areas of the state it leads me to think he could be younger. Doesnt have much staining and his nose looks pointy.

Looks 4.5 to me in 2 pics and 3.5 in the other.
Great deer and will be a stud in another couple years.

Doesn't look older than 4.5 to me. Awesome deer

Heres the deal with age, unless you have a high fence or a very large tract of land in Texas to manage, then aging is at best a three category issue, young, middle aged, mature/post mature. In the grand scheme of things, for most hunters on here, they only need to be able to distinguish between the first two, as most bucks that look like this one will not ever get older than middle aged.

If you like him now, shoot him. If you don't, it is very likely a neighbor will and the issue of letting him age more is moot.

I see 4.5

And there is the age old If you shoot him because a neighbor might then you are that neighbor.

Thanks guys. I was guessing that he was 4.5 at most. Just got the place this year, so he just started getting protein in July. I’ve got one 5.5+ droptine buck that is definitely on the hit list, but he stays off cameras.

Per the sept photos that’s deer is closer to 5+ then 4.

Bet oct photos show him older then 4’s

Bobo, looking at him again he does have a lot of chest on him which makes me think twice about my previous post. Tuff to look at from the small pics, even after you click on them they aren't the greatest. I just cant get past that pointy looking nose in the third shot.

If that’s what you took from that post then “ok”

I said shoot him “if you like him” (highlighted above so you can see what i wrote) Not “shoot him because the neighbor will”

I said it is unlikely that buck makes it to next year.

Given that the OP has an older drop tine buck he knows he wants to shoot, i would say let this one go another year and see what he does. I hope for the OP sake the buck makes it through to next year. Nature and neighbors are brutal on bucks.

Photo three appears to show a cupped forehead and I would have to believe 5.5 at least. would love to see a better photo of how his sternum protrudes (or not).

Cool, one line says if you like him shoot him and the other several lines say people in general cant age deer and most like him will never see maturity and your neighbors will shoot him if you dont yadda yadda. Im not poking at your or him in any way. You may have wanted your emphasis on that one line in red, but that sure isnt how it reads, to me at least.

His place his choice to shoot the deer or any deer It doesnt make a hill of beans to me.

Sure seems to have a long body.

is that a timed protein feeder or is it combination corn and protein?

It’s a timed 2000 lb protein feeder from All Seasons. If I purchase another one, I’d probably wouldn’t get the timed feeder to see how much the deer actually eat. They have gone through about 1,000 pounds of 20% since July on that feeder.

I’m using the Cuddelink system which is great, but the images you receive via email are very small. I need to go grab the card from the base station to get larger images.

I'm not trying to be a jerk but if you kill them at 4 and 130 and everyone else does the same thing, how do you expect to kill him at 6 when he is 150"?

My little place we own is 32.5 acres and If I'd have killed this one at 4.5. I knew letting him go the year before there would be a good chance we'd never see him again....hell, it has happened numerous times before with great young bucks with potential even bigger than this one was in this picture here.



He wouldn't have made a 20"+ jump to this the next year! It's why we that want to kill a big mature deer hunt.

ha
That can get expensive in a hurry. lol
On my lease in Eldorado they've cleaned up a 1,000 lbs in 10 days.

It wasn't you and your patience, it was that there nutrition from Fehner.

These images are not very big either but better view of the face. Images are from mid-aug.

Again, i did not say “shoot him now because he wont make it till next year. What i said was “if ypu like him NOW, then shoot him” emphasis added. For some hunters, that buck is a buck of a lifetime, for others its jusr a mediocre euro mount. We should not as a group chastise or degrade people who want to shoot a 130” 4yo buck, or even a 130” 3yo. The concept of “let em get old” has nothing to do with true hunting, its a management decision and some hunters dont have the benefit of following a management program. The OP left so many details hidden on his original post that it was impossible to say where he is at on the spectrum of hunters we all know exist. Had he put the info about the drop tine buck that he wants to shoot, i would have easily said let this guy go and focus on the dt buck. He didn’t.

The OP also stated he was new to texas, and we all know texas hints differently from other states in that there are a ton of small ranchettes and leases that make any kind of meaningful aging and deer management quite difficult. That is why i stared the biggest issue most people have when trying to make management decisions is dealing with nature and neighbors, unless they have a large tract or HF. The OP left out some details on the size of his place so being a newer texas hunter i was just trying to keep things realistic for him by giving him that heads up.

You were very fortunate to have that buck stay alive and allow you to tag him at a later age. For every instance of that occurring on any 32 acre place i would guess there are probably 7-10 where the opposite happens. However, that doesn’t mean i say kill bucks because they wont come back. I have passed some really nice bucks on my place the last three years hoping they would come back bigger like yours, i am fortunate to have some decent “let them get old” neighbors around me, but there is no guarantee the bucks ever show back up. You know that, as you said.

That deer is at least a 5 yr old. I would kill him as that on my place and not think twice about it. To many characteristics of a deer that is mature.