dbHunterNY

spruce are cheap and we had them on the farm so that's what i grew up with. never had it that bad but they definitely don't hold needles well. sharp as all hell too to get setup as we typically had blue spruce.

don't remember what your buck looked like. last night i was zooming in with my phone. at work this morning looking at pictures on my PC. despite the junk on the last molar i can still see some of the dentine width in spots that would put it at 5.5 yrs old. going with the method it seems like it's likely 5.5 yrs old. on some occasions like this one deer with chipped lingual crests (points of the teeth) for some time cause premature wear pushing it to look like one year older than it actually is. the crests aren't sharply broken like they'd happen recently. same goes for things broken molars or abscess that would make them favor the otherside. in that hypothetical case you want to look at both sides as they will appear to be different ages but obviously their not. your buck jawbone doesn't appear to be showing any signs that it was 6.5 yr old. I'm going with a hard 5.5 yrs old with a slight possibility it's 4.5 yrs old. we typically send the teeth out for bucks anything 4.5 and up just as you're doing though. another things i thought about that isn't really conclusive at all but food for thought is the head DEC biologist Mr Hurst showed me collared doe involved with his research and it looked very similar to yours. it came back from lab at 16.5 yrs old. definitely a "trophy" in my mind if you killed a doe like that.

i'm still on my current one that's a Muddy Safeguard with a rope/prusik knot style tree strap. i like the lightweight and that it doesn't cover anything up. Had a HSS vest pro-series before that and it was just too heavy. didn't breathe much either. have muddy and HSS life lines too. impartial to the lifelines. they all seem to work.

I've shot similar doe that were well over 8.5 years old, the theoretical limit and passed the actual limit of the tooth replacement and wear method. Often they were lighter. Last one was actually 95lbs dressed on the money. Hard to say with the original deer. I can see clearly up to 4.5 yrs old. Dried blood and crap on the last molar to see it clearly enough to get to 5.5 yrs old. Profile height middle aged to mature deer. Lingual crests are all just chipped so I'm not really looking at them. I'll say 4.5 yrs old based on pictures and not jaw in hand. That's my guess. lol Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

a buck on the farm got shot back and high with little penetration. it didn't hit it hard enough to break vertebrae and severe spine. left a whole in the hide and didn't manage to hit the stomach. same thing it got shot in rifle chasing a doe. it wasn't forward of the diaphragm though.

sorry to hear it.

leland if you're on facebook search for the NEBA page. "North East Bowhunters Alliance - NEBA" it's a group of local rod and gun clubs that host shoots on Sunday's from March to September. Clubs are a couple down here and then one in Clifton Park. If you google Hilltop Archery in Argyle, NY they have a course setup and might have leagues going. Another group like NEBA but with different clubs is Capitaland Bowhunters. they have a facebook page too i believe. Not much is going on right now unless a local club has indoor 3D or paper target vegas type of leagues going. some do down this way.

it'd be a good test for @chrisw to post a couple photos of his buck's lower jawbone. someone like me can come up with an age, and then when he gets the results back from Deerage you'll see how close the guesses were.

if you shoot and see enough deer get shot with an arrow you'll believe almost anything is possible. under the context of "no man's land" i still don't. as in it's likely very rare to have an arrow pass through that spot without the lungs there, despite it could happen. people use the term like if you hit there often the deer will get away and live. it's my opinion many see a shot at a certain angle that entered a spot like the one in the original post.

i'm curious though front to back position of where it went under. if i had to guess i'd say far forward or back but not in the middle. seems to me those places would be the first to deflate and move the most. timing had to have been perfect still and deer breathing super heavy instead of shallow relaxed breathes.

noticeable difference with tree lean and perceived platform size. i almost always seem to shoot standing but intentionally got the open shot as it didn't have the bar. climbing wise to me a bar the is a false sense of security.

front to back where was it under the spine? assuming you mean actual spine/cord and not just portion of vertebrae?

thanks for all you do. you've got some public land up your way. i know John who's Warren county that's involved with 4-H shooting sports and CCE.

if i was starting from scratch i'd give saddles a try especially when i had more time to hunt bigger public land. i have a Summit Openshot climber that's light enough and with few enough moving parts that i'm not switching at the moment.

we use Matson lab. send in 10 or so sets of teeth. bewteen $15 and 20 per set. Send them in January and get them back in the spring. accuracy depends mostly on whether or not you damage the root of the incisor getting them out. here in the NY we don't allow baiting so it's very accurate. in areas they supplemental feed all year it's much less accurate. i don't know about Deerage but Matson lab gives you letter grades. they're often "A" for the most confident result.

taking off the 2nd week in December. multiple years in a row i've located good bucks on trail cam only to sit at work.

happy birthday!

this is what i used to do when i had more time to hunt for bobcats, fox, or coyotes. it works. often it was just out in a field. i'd setup just in the field edge. problem is they'd be right on top of me with a rifle. best to have one guy with a shotgun and one with a rifle.

the mechanical rheostat cover was the whole selling point for me. I have the DS-XL5510. It's got the larger 2" vs 1-5/8" sight housing to view more of what i'm shooting at. Also has 0.010" pin that's more than bright enough. Turn down the brightness just enough to prevent any halo effect and you've got pin point precision. biggest archery trophy i've got was won with it.

like grampy said some day i'll shoot one hopefully worthy enough in my mind to have you mount it. if you're willing. looks great. super clean as always.

Common biz you should know how Santa magic works! Real time is just that moving at normal pace. Santa and everything around him speeds up faster so he can hurry his fat ass around the world in seemingly just one night. Santa's the kickass. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

So you all know baiting works. This guy came into cookies and whole milk. Merry Christmas to you all! Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Five day weekend. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Couple Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

being proactive to learn more will make you a better hunter. welcome to the forum. you're in a good area.