Hunting for "mature" deer rather than antler size.

[insanelupus]

I'm still prone to looking at antlers first. After killing plenty of whitetails, I find myself looking for "mature" whitetails. I've defined mature for me as 4.5 or older, as they seem to be easier to field judge than younger stuff, though not always.

Anyone else prefer hunting for age class rather than horn size?

Any tips or tricks, either for hunting tactics or even field judging age you've found helpful?

 

[Tourguide]

Check out the videos section on this site, pretty good for tips on judging body size www.ihuntalberta.com

 

[rkcdvm]

I hunt in an antler restriction zone in Texas . Requires minimum 13 in inside spread . I’m not great on judging but it seems after several years of seeing the same deer it looks like that takes anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5 years to get there . I’m sure there is variance. A couple seem to look like they will never get there regardless of their bases being the size of baseball bats .
I am definitely for the restriction though. When I was a kid you’d be luck to see a deer ever get to 8 points .

 

[Skerhunter]

I do exactly what you described. I’m looking for a 4.5+ year old deer, doesn’t matter antler size. For my area though I don’t think I have ever seen a mature deer under 130”. I still check antler size first, but as they get closer I’m paying closer attention to their appearance and what they are doing. I tried “picking” a specific deer to hunt for a while (highest scoring in area). That was fun, but burned me out after 5/6 seasons.

 

[TimeOnTarget]

I do the same. 4.5 is a nice deer but 5.5 really shows their full potential. I’m fortunate enough to be able to sometimes follow deer for 2-3 years of their life by the time I decide to kill one of them. It’s honestly the most bittersweet feeling ever when I kill one that I spent that amount of time and effort on. Mighty hard to see it all come to an end. I’ll never get to observe or hunt “that deer” again.

Oddly enough when it comes to antlers, they just seem to be bigger on the mature ones

 

[sierracharlie338]

I hunt in an antler restriction zone in Texas . Requires minimum 13 in inside spread . I’m not great on judging but it seems after several years of seeing the same deer it looks like that takes anywhere from 3.5 to 4.5 years to get there . I’m sure there is variance. A couple seem to look like they will never get there regardless of their bases being the size of baseball bats .
I am definitely for the restriction though. When I was a kid you’d be luck to see a deer ever get to 8 points .

Im in the same boat.

OP it depends on where you hunt honestly. Texas mature deer aren’t going to be judged exactly the same as the giant bodied deer in Canada per se. There are some resources available that can really help. Especially down here in Texas where heard management is a big thing on some ranches, age verification comes before antler size.

I was lucky enough to take a deer I’ll never be able to top (unless I win the lottery lol) so I look for legal and mature these days.

 

[KHNC]

172" 3.5 yo 6x6 killed in Nebraska on a place ive hunted since 2006 and never saw one that big there. No way I could pass a deer like that. Killed 30 mins into rifle season opening morning.

 

[Skerhunter]

172" 3.5 yo 6x6 killed in Nebraska on a place ive hunted since 2006 and never saw one that big there. No way I could pass a deer like that. Killed 30 mins into rifle season opening morning.

Pictures or it didn’t happen. Not a ton of 172” deer in nebraska.

 

[insanelupus]

We definately hunt 4.5 year olds on the family midwest farm.

And yep, I'm not turning down a 150+" deer, i don't care how old he is.

But it's a real challenge finding the 4.5s on public land. Might go a few seasons before I find one and the right 3.5 might be too big a temptation. But i still intend for a 4.5.

 

[NLenz22]

I look for a decent amount of mass, especially at the bases. Where I’m at that is usually a good dividing line between <3.5 vs. 4.5+ year old deer. I don’t usually pass something 4.5+ unless he’s busted all to hell or is extremely small antlered.

IMO anyone who takes a quick look at a mature deer and insists they can tell that he’s 5.5, 6.5, or 7.5 is full of it. If he’s mature and he’s big, shoot him. Unless you’re one of the lucky few that are able to hold the same deer for multiple years.

 

[ILHunter2022]

Public land hunter, so I just take what I can get.

 

[TradLife406]

Saturday I went out to a small 600 some acres a friend owns for the first time. He said it had a lot of deer. I was like yeah we'll see.
I got there as the sun was starting to come up. A county road runs the length of the property. There were deer all over! Up and down the road and in the road. I've never seen anything like it. Bucks everywhere but nothing really impressive. I spent a good hour and a half just road glassing. With a plan to get high later than morning and glass the brush piles and creek bottom.
I ended up pulling over into a gate pullout that over looked a field and a covered hillside above a creek. I glassed this dude up and immediately could tell he was more mature than the other deer I'd seen. I grabbed the rifle and tripod choked up the 500 yards to three hundo.

He's definitely no booner but his teeth were worn down and a back one was missing. I talked to the landowner and he said most of the deer there don't get bigger than 120 because it's so over populated. Kinda cool taking one of the older deer off there. I just don't typically hunt areas that produce giant deer. Usually heavy horned 120-130" deer. So it's definitely about the age class than rack size.

 

[Fogalo]

I passed a 160 inch 4 year old in hopes to shoot a 150 inch 6 year old… depends on your situation.

Oh and the neighbor shot him on opening day of rifle.

 

[jpuckett]

Strike 3 for the Myth of the Genetic “Cull Buck”

The facts have been thoroughly checked: We can’t manage genetics of wild deer and produce measurable change. A new study help bury an old myth about cull bucks.

deerassociation.com

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jpuckett]

Pretty cool article on age class being the only real thing we can control outside of millions of dollars in resources and years and years to get minimal gain. Beeen trying to explain that for years… ain’t no such thing as a cull buck. Just a young buck


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[insanelupus]

@TradLife406

Thanks for that posting. Thought I was going to fill a tag last night, at first. A 3.5 year old made an appearance, neck full into the brisket, a bit of belly on him but not sagging, straight backed, and his hips and shoulders weren't "boxer" heavy. First glance said older, but not old enough.

Funny enough, I couldn't make out much for browtines, on what would have been a rack that was almost eartip width, but short tined 4x5 (if browtines were there). Similar to what is in your pic.

Public land MT bucks don't get real old around here. Lol. Five minutes after I passed him up, he headed up towards an FS road where a single shot rang out.

Still the oldest buck I've seen so far this year while hunting.

 

[Macintosh]

I hope you all recognize how good you have it.


Around here a mature 4.5 yr old deer is rarely into even 110. He might weigh 220lb, but the antlers are almost never very big. The combination of hard winters and slim pickins dont make for big horns. I think its why serious deer hunters in this part of the world talk about deer weight, not antlers. None of the regional buck pools, “biggest deer clubs” etc use anything other than weight as a measuring stick. Measuring horns is a midwest/south/western thing as far as I can tell.

 

[TSAMP]

 

[mcseal2]

I try to wait for bucks to hit 5.5 years old before I hunt them. My closest neighbors do the same. I like big antlers as much as anyone, but I'll take an old 150" buck over a young 160" one given time to judge them or a history to go off of. My Dad and I own and operate our ranch, so I'm hunting where I work every day. It gives me opportunities most do not have.

Years that there isn't anything big I want to hunt I target a cull buck. I've read the studies that show it doesn't work and I won't argue the science. I've seen some genetic traits carry through generations, and I usually have multiple years of trail cam pics of the same deer. It may not help to shoot the ones with inferior racks, but it doesn't hurt. Some years I get what I call bully bucks, deer with age and giant bodies but smaller racks that run off the deer I'm wanting to hunt. I target those bucks every time I identify one and try to get rid of them.

I'm not arguing that everything I do is right, just sharing what I do.

 

[fulldraw1972]

Pictures or it didn’t happen. Not a ton of 172” deer in nebraska.

Here are a couple over 200 that were shot this year in SE Nebraska. One was 211 and the other was 214.
Both bucks were hit with archery the week before gun season and not recovered. They then were shot with rifles opening weekend of gun season.
The taxidermist that is mounting them is a friend of mine.

My biggest buck from Ne is a 160 and when we sent in his tooth it came back at 3.5 years old. I could have swore he was a 4.5 year old.