dbHunterNY

best to have a completely broadsided picture. however, i think he's no older than 4.5 years old. I think he's more like 3.5 yrs old though. legs are proportionate typical of a 3.5 opposed to shorter look starting at 4.5 years old. waist and hind quarters aren't quite thick enough for 4.5 yrs old. did he have longer looking legs last year?

I got a second reliable opinion back. they said 2.5 yrs old and they sent it on to another reliable source. i'll post again when I get their estimate.

not sure down there. not sure if a local QDMA branch could help, Foothills Habitat Consultants, or North Country Whitetails.

Seriously though a locksmith will drill it look into it and figure out the combo to make the tumblers align right.

Bonds, coins, old deeds, photos.... Etc

Yea that'd be a bad out come.

nice buck. congrats to your son!

out of three 30-06s a Rem 7600 likes 150 gr core-lokts and the other two (Rem 742 Woodsmaster and Browning Abolt II) like Fed Fusion 150 gr. MOA accuracy or better.

yea these about sum it up.

hahah... on stand and it's a Thursday. atta boy. still a little early yet but hopefully a first hot doe will cruise by and he'd most certainly find her. looks like a 3.5 year old in the video if you don't gaze into the rack! lol he packed on some muscle and pounds since then. he's all of 4.5+ years old. definitely a buck of a lifetime for most.

yea I've used it for several years. I'm not huge on using all kinds of scents but I do use them sparingly. ever calm in a stick is probably the most used. like phade said it's not a magical. I've found deer do seem to stay more calm. I use it on the tree I'm in, in front of the stand to stop deer, and on boots when I need to cross trails to get to my stand set. I think it helps but you still have to pay attention to the wind.

Late fall before deep frost. We've got clay here and when things start to thaw it gets real slick and plugs the discs a lot. Especially with old corn stubble. Then doing so in fall also helps dissipate nitrogen if you've got an existing non-perennial clover like red clover.

Well opinions are like butt holes everyone's got one. Some are just full of crap so I'll be sending the pictures onto a biologist and/or other QDM guru for other opinions.

you're not doing this stuff are you.... http://www.realtree.com/bowhunting/articles/10-bowhunting-sins

so I think there's a chance he could be 3.5 but mostly think he's just an exceptional 2.5 year old. here's why I think that, which doesn't mean it's right but my reasons none the less... - obvious but not severe dentine line on the 3rd premolar and cusps still have crests even on the back. at 3.5 they should be worn down more I feel. - dentine relative to enamel of lingual crest (enamel) is at most equal on the first molar (should be more to 2x for 3.5), narrower on the 2nd molar (definitely not 4.5), and barely there on the last molar. - secondary crests of 1st molar also still raised. - last cusp on the 3rd (last) molar still raised on the inside (tongue side) and concave on general. at 3.5 yrs old the outside edge (cheek side) should be worn so it slopes more toward the cheek. - also when looking at the premolars (1st 3 teeth) they show minimal staining compared to the molars (back 3 teeth) so when they were replaced at 1 year 7 months couldn't have been too long ago. at 172 lbs dressed, body size makes you think the buck might be 3.5 years old (myself included), but deer have different genes. in your kid's class at school some kids are bigger and some smaller. same thing with deer. so I'm not ruling out 3.5 but if I was betting money I'd go with 2.5 years old.

didn't read through a lot of this snowballed thread. I don't like how deer farming turns a natural resource and hunting into a something artificial and driven by money. hunts aren't canned in a big 1,000+ acre fence but the success rates are much better than free range hunting. also it's not based on how skilled you are at finding a bigger buck. it's whatever inches you're willing to pony up the money for. I have no doubts in my mind that Four Seasons works for the money he's earned. I'm sure he gets up every morning with a list of crap to deal with. I think some in here no more about CWD then he likes to admit. However, he should know more. His lively hood depends on it. To my knowledge it's not known how or why CWD initially shows up. it is a disease based on prevalence though and it's a fact that it can become more prevalent on a farm than in the wild. I don't think there's reliable means to test live deer so any herd, farmed or not, isn't any safer to begin with than deer herds in the wild. As long as right measures are taken so any farm raised deer are isolated from the wild population then it's not as big of an issue. that's assuming all deer farms are responsible though, and based on society in general, I doubt that's the case. things get even less black and white once the deer leave the farm. the deer have such good genetics that they're shipped around with big antlers or as a fatter doe sooner in life than maturity. CWD doesn't show itself in a deer until later ages much of the time.

if you see them or hear them that's too much. you'll never get rid of all of them and you won't always catch them on a trail camera. nothing personal to the coyote but the less deer they eat, the more deer I can fill my freezer with.

the question of someone being a meat hunter versus an antler hunter is only asked because we assume the quality of hunting here sucks. very few being an exception, every hunter hunts for both. any "meat hunter" I know has taken or hunted a bigger buck when it has presented itself or they knew it was around. the guy that shoots a 120lb or less 1.5 year old buck and says he's a meat hunter and it'll eat better than anything else is just trying to justify the decision. it's not helping his demands as a meat hunter though. If he's a landowner he can get [doe] tags from DEC and if he's not he could spend a little extra and get a muzzleloader tag and fill his regular tag [with doe]. doe that are 3.5 yrs old and up are usually as heavy. also by shooting 1.5 year old [bucks] and no doe he's killing the productivity (and meat providing potential) of the herd. 1.5 yr old bucks make up a majority of the buck population. save them and there's more to get to all the doe when they first come into heat. more doe are bred and have babies. those babies are born sooner so they're bigger and survive winter or predation better. also there isn't non-productive doe (that he chose not to shoot) eating the food during the winter that's limited. doe and their babies are now fatter and happier rolling into warmer months when food becomes plentiful again. whenever a doe is taken it should always be checked to see if it has milk or it's dry. that's an indication of how many fawns are making it through or being produced. to put more meat on your table in the future.

my dad has an older 7600 woodsmaster in 30-06 with a wood stock he bought from woolworths. it doesn't rattle and it'll drive tacks with cheap 150gr green box core-lokts. many deer have died at 300 with that gun. trigger sucks but you learn to deal with it. newer ones with synthetic stock aren't as nice but it's a great gun especially for here in the northeast woods and ag. it handles like lightening which is probably why the Benoit brothers liked it so much. ...oh ... $300-400 is definitely fair unless it's a lemon and doesn't shoot well.

backstraps on the grill is always a great thing. congrats

dichromatic eye sight. deer actually do see blues and yellows far better than any other color.

Well? What do you folks think the age is?

the only benefit to a crossbow is you don't have to draw and have the added movement associated with it. what I tell my wife when I'm with her is to go through what needs to happen. focus on each step of the process to make the shot happen. then you won't focus on the presence of a deer and get excited. then after the shot the flood gates of emotion are free to flow.

No I'm with you. I was making the distinction between the 3 molars and 3 premolars. Yea I've found that 4 years old is where you really start to see wear on the last cusp of the third (last) molar. The lingual crest will round off and be not as tall at 3.5.

deer can have broken teeth or health issues sure. there's usually at least something there. like what was said the deer needs to have something there for premolars or molars to chew its food. when some teeth are broken it's important to realize they're broken and focus on other teeth. my uncle has a jaw bone from a 2.5 yr old that had hardly anything for a second and third molar on one side.