Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I just don't care how old a buck is

I watch these shows on TV and they see a buck they like until they realize "it's only 3 1/2 , it needs another year". I'm probably just old fashioned but when I see a buck I want I don't even try to figure out how old it might be. But you see it more and more. The TV hunters spend a lot of time talking about how to age a buck on the hoof. The whole thing just doesn't appeal to me.

ok

I've never tried to guess a deer's age. I'm a meat hunter, and it just doesn't matter.

ME EATHER IF IT IS LEAGLE AN I WANT TO KILL IT I WILL F SHOW HUNTING

I live in the Adirondack Mountains, where you're lucky to see a buck during the whole season. I'm with you on the subject, and you'll receive a lot of backlash from the food plot hunters, but you seem to have made this post to just piss people.

Farmers turning deer into livestock. If they hunted public land here they'd change their tune quick or they wouldn't punch many tags.

best eating deer is a 1.5 y/o spike in my opinion. i got a wall full of 6 inch spikes in my camp going back 70 years. these fuggen tv shows with the bone collectors and age appropriate bucks make me sad for the sport. ya i'm a dinosaur and don't give a fugg. to each his own i suppose.

No I'm not looking to piss anybody off. I'm not even saying I'm right. Sometimes I start threads on here just so people can come on and tell me why I'm wrong. It lets me see things through a different perspective.

I can see that a lot of hunters don't care about such things, but I'd fall into the category that does care about maturity in the animals I hunt. I hunted MT this past fall and probably glassed 3-400 mule deer bucks before finding a deer that was "mature" enough to interest me. I do a lot of brown bear hunting and have passed a lot of 9' class bears because they were immature bears. When I lived in the L48 killing a buck wasn't a challenge; killing a mature buck was another thing altogether. As for eating, aged venison is a different beast and mature deer can be very flavorful if cared for appropriately and hung in a meat locker, but I realize that most deer aren't aged properly so younger deer are no doubt much more tender to the average hunter.

I should add that hunting shows are slightly less interesting to me than watching Oprah reruns...

74 TV shows are canned... No one sees that many deer in a normal year, I seldom watch deer hunting shows .. Coyote stuff once in a while..

Mike, I'll add my observations of SO CALLED hunting shows.

You CAN NOT age accurately by sight. Yes there are indicators of age but indicators are all they are.

I've seen very mature WT called 2 1/2 or 3 1/2 when it's obvious they are OLDER. First off, I think the TV shows are trying to convince WATCHERS that 'mature' is really what we call old or older bucks. I killed a big, heavy horned 6 pt. (not a big rack but HEAVY) in 2013 or 2014 that was an OLD buck. Mass does NOT come before age.
He had a LONG face (nose) and gray hair on his head. I don't recall his weight but I weigh all bucks whole, because I want to know their live weight.

I have pix but am unable to post them currently. You can clearly see his LONG head (nose to crown).

On UNCONTROLLED land what you or I let walk, the NEXT hunter probably will shoot. I have NOTHING to gain except to lose killing a nice buck if I let him walk. 406_SBC is right on about AGING and HANDLING as it relates to taste.


The ONLY accurate way to age a buck is MOLAR examination and then it is not EXACT.

Per age, the only rule I have is Don't Shoot Fawns (dinks), Every button or very short spiked buck you kill is an Antler buck you'll never see nor kill. I tell anyone who hunts w/me-- Don't Shoot Fawns.

Jerry

I am lucky enough where I live there are a lot of whitetail to watch.

They have such little pressure they are not terribly nocturnal.

It is fun and informative to try and age them.

However it seems very few are older than 3.5 years.

The older ones must become nocturnal. I don't use game cameras......better start I guess.

I dont watch many so called hunting shows as I think for the most part they are a joke, there are very few actual hunters on these shows. As far as only shooting older bucks, I only shoot trophy (to me) bucks that I think will score 150"+ but I have nothing against the guy that wants to shoot the first spike that walks by.....If your happy I'm happy......Hb

its all about the way the hunt unfolds to me. I kill what ever I want. going meat hunting in a few.

Good luck......Hb

Aging can be tough sometimes. We try to let the small basket racks and spindly racks go, as well as the ones with lean racehorse bodies (the traits generally coincide). If there's much obvious mass on top or a chunky body profile, odds are good we are going to try to get him in the scope and will probably pull the trigger. We don't see a lot of "mature" bucks each season and they generally only give us one or maybe two chances in the daylight. That being said, a person should shoot the deer that makes them happy. I still love tagging a big-bodied doe for the freezer, even though there are no horns to look at.

I really don't have much time to check ID.
If I get a 3-5 second window I am lucky.

Hunting should largely be about what makes you happy. If that means a 1 1/2 year old "meat buck" then more power to you but don't complain about someone that wants to let a deer get some age on it.

The regs where I live allow two bucks a season and three does a day for 60 days. I find it hard to swallow when someone shoots a young buck because "his freezer was about empty".

As for the hunting shows-for the most part they are ridiculous. No sense getting riled up over them, just don't watch.

Shoot what makes you happy and move on.

My apologies for getting the wrong vibe.