Age this buck, April/20
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: M.Pauls
27-Apr-20
Well not a whole ton of content here these days so I thought this could be fun. I found a dead head this winter that I know the age of, more or less, and figured it would be fun to see how the estimations come in. I’ll start with some pics of teeth for today, and then I’ll post some pics of a skull tomorrow. If there’s some interest I’ll post pics of him on the hoof the following day, with a given year, and see if that narrows things down. Here ya go:
From: M.Pauls
27-Apr-20
From: M.Pauls
27-Apr-20
From: M.Pauls
27-Apr-20
From: M.Pauls
27-Apr-20
From: APauls
27-Apr-20
Can I play??
From: M.Pauls
27-Apr-20
Ha, Deerslayer, APauls and JStevens are forbidden from “guessing”
From: JTreeman
27-Apr-20
Ok, can I play then? I think 23!
—Jim
From: Slate
27-Apr-20
As old as he is going to get
From: Overland
27-Apr-20
4.5
From: BullBuster
27-Apr-20
Yep 4
From: Buckstone
27-Apr-20
I’m going with Old as he gets!
From: lineman21
27-Apr-20
9
From: Medicinemann
27-Apr-20
Dentine looks pretty wide to me on the first, second, and third molars (wider than the enamel). The first molar doesn't look real flat to me yet, so I'll go with 6.5 years.....but the degree of flattening on the first molar is a tough one for me to judge. I'm thinking that if the deer isn't 6.5 years old, it is older than that....not younger.
From: Lee
27-Apr-20
5.5 - 6.5
From: t-roy
27-Apr-20
Using the always accurate WAG method, I’m going with 7 2/3rds.
From: Beginner
27-Apr-20
old
From: Bow Crazy
28-Apr-20
He is 6.5 if not older for all the reasons posted by Medicineman (QDMA trained?). Nice find! Very rare in our neck of the woods. BC
From: relliK reeD
28-Apr-20
I will go with 7.5
From: milnrick
28-Apr-20
I'm thinking 6.5, there's a lot of wear on the 3rd and 4th molars
From: M.Pauls
28-Apr-20
Ok guys, interesting so far. Here’s a pic of my 4 year old, Nahum, holding his dead head when we found it.
From: sticksender
28-Apr-20
rough guess.....born May 2013
From: Shawn
28-Apr-20
5.5 but not getting any older! Shawn
From: beemann
28-Apr-20
8.5
From: Tyler
30-Apr-20
lets see some live pics then I will guess! Any idea as to the cause of death?
From: Bou'bound
30-Apr-20
7.5 but that right bicuspid is a bit inconsistent so I am not certain. Could be 6.5.
From: M.Pauls
30-Apr-20
ok Tyler here he is in a screen shot out of a video in fall of 2018. Give me a guess and then I’ll share the story. Sorry my video camera went into some sort of default mode the screwed with my lighting on that one. It was actually still good camera light but it turned out poor.
From: M.Pauls
30-Apr-20
From: APauls
30-Apr-20
Looks old enough to have soaked up an arrow or two in his day...
From: deerslayer
30-Apr-20
I'm thinking he is old enough to have escaped death from an experienced assassin;)
From: Tyler
30-Apr-20
lets see some live pics then I will guess! Any idea as to the cause of death?
From: Tyler
30-Apr-20
Id guess 7.5-8.5 solid looking MB buck
From: 4nolz@work
30-Apr-20
I'm surprised a 7 yo Canadian deadhead is no bigger than that.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
Ok so this story starts back in 2016. I had an amazing rut morning of sitting. There was obviously a hot doe in the area and bucks were everywhere nose to the ground. Best part of all, I filmed all of it. This buck in this thread, who I a year later began to call SkiHi, made an appearance making a scrape about 80 yards north of me. He looked like a real nice 4x4 and 3.5 years old, but I had never seen him before to my knowledge. He came past my stand a couple times in an hour following the hot doe scent, but he never got an arrow as he clearly wasn’t mature yet, and I was hunting a booner in that same piece that actually made an appearance later that morning. I had rattled thinking I could maybe get him out of his bed, as he was likely with the hot doe and maybe this happening so close to his bedroom would get him up and out of bed to see who was stepping on his turf. Well not 5 minutes later I see him come out of the swamp, and like all mature bucks, became very weary when he didn’t see the death match I had portrayed, so although he came in that beautiful morning, he hung up at 40, and the only thing I’d be shooting that morning was video.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
SkiHi as a good looking 3 1/2 year old
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
Here’s a screen shot out of my video of the booner that held up at 40. With the sunlight, his tines are fairly washed out, but I had him pegged for a 170 typical.
Here’s a screen shot out of my video of the booner that held up at 40. With the sunlight, his tines are fairly washed out, but I had him pegged for a 170 typical.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
2017 I was excited to see what this great looking buck would turn into as a buck entering full maturity phase. When I first saw him that year I was a little disappointed. He turned into a a 5 on the one side making him a 4x5, but besides that he grew very marginally. He was still tall but his frame remained compact, and so I figured if I got a chance at him, I'd likely leave him alone for another year.
Later in November, I got a chance to put my thoughts into action. I had some standing corn on a field, and I thought it would be great fun to watch the deer cross into the corn from the bush and then go and sneak in with the wind in my favour and see how close I could get to a doe, and add her to the freezer. It was a fairly windy evening so in theory it should be pretty easy. I was in snow Camo on the edge of my field, when all of a sudden I watched a tall rack come out of the trees, and before he got to the corn I snort wheezed to try and turn him my way. It was SkiHi without a doubt and here he comes. He seemed to have some sort of a bully complex despite his small frame size, so this was no surprise. With my mind made up that no arrows would be loosed, I was sad I didn't have my camera. But when he wasn't looking I managed to wiggle my phone out from the layers and filmed him that way come in to 10 yards on the ground. He knew something wasn't right, but never blew out, and I would have had a shot opportunity as he turned and slowly retreated back into the trees.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
SkiHi as a 4 1/2 year old
SkiHi as a 4 1/2 year old
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
By the way, shortly after that, I watched a doe head into the corn, and the sneak was on. I managed to get myself a "paced out" 4 yards from her and she had no clue. I snuck an arrow through the goodies and she ran about 60 yards down one of the rows before expiring. That is about as much fun as a man can have with his clothes on.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
From: Rgiesey
01-May-20
Good to have a hunting thread. My only real attempt is to “guess “ 4.5 or older.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
Well, now we're at 2018, and SkiHi should be 5 1/2. Time for him to blow up. I hadn't seen him much in the early season which didn't concern me as he usually spent his early fall a mile and a half north, before coming to this property. This year was unique and exciting as Justin Byers aka "Deerslayer" was coming up to MB to hunt, and had purchased a tag with an outfitter for the area I also hunt. Justin was looking for a P&Y, and I told him this likely would be the year that SkiHi would make it, and that would be a great buck for him to target. We worked it out, with the outfitter present that he could hunt the same property. Win-win. Being a bully buck, I suggested a buck decoy and blind setup, up against my fenced pasture that way he couldn't circle, and I would come along to film. About an hour before dark he hit the alfalfa field that was littered with does. This was his paradise. He was about 600 yards away, but with a quick snort wheeze, he came running like a dog. I have never in my life witnessed a deer sprint to a call like that. He slowed down about 200 yards out to a trot, but it was a slam dunk at this point. He was keyed in on that decoy, and trucking. At 27 yards Justin let fly. Shot was absolutely perfect.,,, but at the last minute he dropped at the sound, and took the arrow in the backstrap! We knew he was fine, but tracked him anyways, about 500 yards to where the arrow fell out. After reviewing the footage it was clear that Justin's shot was money. It's amazing, he didn't move until the arrow was about 10 yards from him and dropped about 16" in that last split second. Goes to show how quick they react.
My wife saw him the next day chasing a doe, so that was a relief and just confirmed what we had suspected. 2018 was his biggest antler growth year.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
His biggest growth year and a real nice buck, but still not the original hopes I had for him when I saw him as a 3 1/2 year old
His biggest growth year and a real nice buck, but still not the original hopes I had for him when I saw him as a 3 1/2 year old
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
Here are two screen shots showing arrow in flight and how much he dropped
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
From: t-roy
01-May-20
Good stuff so far. Keep it coming!
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
Well, come 2019 I was wondering if now he would finally explode as a 6 1/2, but as I've already eluded to, it wasn't meant to be. He was slightly more compacted than the previous year, and it was clear he had already hit his potential.
I was hunting a very impressive 4x4 with a split G2 this year on a property about 5 miles away, who was also on the decline from being a 190 gross/180 net non typical the prior year. (measured sheds) This year he cleaned up all his junk and just become a very thick 4 with the exception of the split G2. I had him inside 20 yards on two occasions which would be easily in my effective range, but he evaded me the way he snuck through the willows. I managed to get some of it on video, for the memories, but again, that's all I would be shooting of this buck for 2019.
For the last week I decided to focus back on the other property and killing SkiHi, as he was past his prime, and with his bully complex, I figured he could actually be preventing other mature bucks from moving and rounding out some of the age classes. But, as many 6 1/2 year old bucks do, he had his first year that he evaded me, and I figured I'd get to watch what he would turn into as a 7 year old.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
The other buck I was hunting this past year.
The other buck I was hunting this past year.
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
That frame!
That frame!
From: M.Pauls
01-May-20
Well, a couple weeks ago we went out as a family to do some shed hunting, which we all very much enjoy each spring. Not 10 minutes in, I find a carcass just inside the bush by about 40 yards in from a field edge. Immediately I recognize the head, and the chapter of SkiHi has ended. I can say with about 95% certainty that he was poached. I know this because the road is about 150 yards from where he often stood in this location before crossing the road. There are a lot of poachers that drive this road. Also his whole skeleton was intact and hadn't been disturbed so the coyotes hadn't really been at him. His head was bent back from running into a tree as he died so he clearly died in a death run, and being that I saw him still in December after our season is closed, I'm fairly positive he was shot from the road after season and not recovered. Sad ending to a story, but in terms of actual herd health I'm not disappointed in the buck that had to take the bullet. Hope you enjoyed the story and the age guessing game. Medicineman was the first to nail the age!
From: t-roy
01-May-20
At least you know (for the most part) what happened to him. That other buck is a brute! Any pics of his sheds?
From: deerslayer
01-May-20
One of my favorite still shots of him... what a pigged out neck!!!!
