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Age me (photos added throughout thread)

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grandjunctionhunter

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Joined
Jan 3, 2019
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37
Location
Southwest TN
1695950189441.png
 
Makes me wonder if multiple hunters gave him a pass when he was 3 1/2 & 4 1/2.

Monitoring a large group of hunters, when there is a top-end antlered 3 1/2, rarely will that one survive to 4 1/2, and never to 5 1/2. But a well below averaged antlered one (like the one in above pics), typically gets passed up by multiple hunter multiple times when 3 1/2 & 4 1/2.

THESE are the bucks most likely to survive to 5 1/2 or older.
Some of us then see them as outstanding unique trophy bucks
due to their age more than their antlers.

However, 5 1/2 & older bucks will often grow some non-typical tines, which can make for very unique antlers.
 
I missed him last year at about 300 yard. Last week of the season in unit CWD. I had pictures of him from March while he shed, so I knew it was a clean miss.

This week, I get this picture. Same place as previous pictures this time of year of the same deer. What are the odds this is the same deer and he's made it 7.5+ in unit CWD. Two years ago, half the deer tested came back positive so we basically stopped testing. Goes to show you not all deer die of CWD. I truly think it's the same deer and at this point he's going down hill. Curious as to y'all's thought…(sorry for the numerous post, would have put it all in one but having trouble posting pics from my phone)
1695952775972.png
 
grandjunctionhunter said:
I missed him last year at about 300 yard. Last week of the season in unit CWD. I had pictures of him from March while he shed, so I knew it was a clean miss.

This week, I get this picture. Same place as previous pictures this time of year of the same deer. What are the odds this is the same deer and he's made it 7.5+ in unit CWD. Two years ago, half the deer tested came back positive so we basically stopped testing. Goes to show you not all deer die of CWD. I truly think it's the same deer and at this point he's going down hill. Curious as to y'all's thought…(sorry for the numerous post, would have put it all in one but having trouble posting pics from my phone)
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100% the same deer
 
grandjunctionhunter said:
What are the odds this is the same deer and he's made it 7.5+ in unit CWD.
Click to expand...

Pretty darn good considering CWD has been detected in wild herds for more than 40yrs, is present in 30 states & 6 countries, and has yet to kill a herd off. I've never once saw, read, or heard of a publishing that details with factual statistics how CWD has destroyed a wild herd of cervids. It's always been the fear since day 1 but has yet to become reality and most likely never will.

I was living in NM around the time it was discovered there and we all freaked out because everybody just knew it was the end of hunting. It was an incurable, unkillable, infectious, contagious, 100% fatal disease and it was sweeping through the herds going state to state. Nothing could be done about it. But then nothing happened. And nothing kept happening. Hunting continued as usual and more than 20yrs after the fact people are still killing world class elk & mule deer at normal rate. The herds out there are just fine. The herds everywhere are just fine. My buddy recently sent me a pic of a 12yr old bull he just killed in Utah, who discovered CWD same time as NM. Imagine a bull elk roaming the mountains and seasonal region shifts for 12 years. How many CWD positive elk did he encounter? How many CWD infected water holes or wallows or grazing pastures did he use? CWD had been around more than a decade before he was even born yet he survived 12yrs to be killed by a hunter.

TN by contrast only discovered CWD in 2018 and look at how TWRA is handling it. Baffles me.
 
Ski said:
TN by contrast only discovered CWD in 2018 and look at how TWRA is handling it. Baffles me.
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Thanks for the response and I completely agree. We personally haven't changed anything with how we attempt to manage the herd aside from being able to hunt the CWD seasons. I do feel like on this property the bucks we get on camera tend to show a younger overall age structure, but then again, the older bucks are more elusive and harder to capture.
 
grandjunctionhunter said:
I do feel like on this property the bucks we get on camera tend to show a younger overall age structure, but then again, the older bucks are more elusive and harder to capture.
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It's a rare place to have a congregation of older bucks. In large most places have a pretty symmetrical age structure pyramid for bucks with mature bucks making up the tip top and fawns/yearlings making up the base. Having majority younger bucks is normal.

Also with the CWD kill off and liberal regs in CWD zone, it's fair to assume LOTS of older bucks are being killed off faster than nature can replace them. You may not be doing it on your property but at least some in the area surrounding you probably are. With mature bucks being the smallest faction of the age structure to begin with, killing a bunch of them off can make them pretty scarce. I doubt CWD is the cause of a younger buck herd. The reaction to CWD is.
 

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