Generally believe once a free range deer makes it to 6.5 it is a coin flip whether it will live to see the next fall. That end might come from a hunter or a nature but its always a nice surprise if an old buck is back on the first card pull of the year. To celebrate that, here are a few old timers who beat the odds this year.

9.5 years old - 6 years of history, zero in person sightings. Has made it this far largely due to his huge territory (consistently see him over a 2 mile area) that is mostly too thick and too rugged to hunt consistently. Never been anything more than a thick heavy 6pt


8.5 years old - 5 years of history, one in person sighting as a 3yr old. Lives largely on large non-hunting neighbor's property and only get pics late at night. Peaked as a lows 140s 10pt at 6.5


7.5 years old - 6 years of history, multiple in person sightings as a 1yr to 5yr old. Antler decline at 6 and now at 7.


Excited to see how these old guys finish out

How's the rain been in your part of the country? Are you generally seeing more, better horns this year?

Normal amount of rain for us, nice jumps in antler quality from deer in the 3-5 age ranges

Looks like that last buck is blind in one eye too.

Yep that is how we’ve been able to tell him since he was a yearling. Have another deer that was a 3yr old 8pt last year and had his eye taken out in November. This year grew into a nice 10pt that one might think is a different deer but that blind eye the tell.