How do you tell how wide ?

[Yoteassasin]

How you you field judge a Colombian black tail ?
How wide are average ears ?
Say I wanted a 16”+ buck .. what boxes should it check ….

 

[Azone]

Ears are 17 to 20 inches tip to tip in my experience, 18 and change being the norm.

 

[Cahunter805]

My personal experience is that a blacktail buck needs to be outside it’s ears to be 20”+. Right at it’s ear tips is usually 18” and just inside is 16”.

 

[exvotobone]

Following just getting into hunting

 

[eLightfoot]

A mature buck is about 18-20” wide to be even with ear tips

 

[mighteywhitehunter]

Average as others have said, are 18" tip to tip on an alive and alert deer.

 

[OutHeavy]

Since you asked the question about "checking boxes", the spread on a blacktail in CA usually isn't coveted the same way they are on mulies. Deer wider than 20" aren't common, but might be more common than a deer with more than 4 points on each side. In a state that sells over 300,000 hunting licenses annually locating a buck better than a 4x4 is usually viewed as exceptional, regardless of spread.

 

[Bigolwiggler]

When I soil my trousers , its WIDE !

 

[Marble]

How you you field judge a Colombian black tail ?
How wide are average ears ?
Say I wanted a 16”+ buck .. what boxes should it check ….

Depends a little bit on age. But a mature blacktail buck will be around 18". Larger animals can be bigger. Mule deer can range from 20 to 26" depending and age, location and genetics.

Here's a blacktail to think about. Fairly wide 3x4 with big eye guards. Haven't seen him yet this year but I have one more camera to check.

I would guess this one has ears around 18 or 19" wide with around 4 inches on each side, outside his ears. A trophy for sure, but wilnot meet the standards for a a book entry because of a lack of mass, short one point and shallow forks. But he decent to better than average mass.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Azone]

Here’s a ear width picture for those interested.