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And the census fun begins

With the millions of pics you've gone thru, I bet you've seen some really cool stuff. Have you compiled a "best of?" Are you able to share some with us, or do the belong to your clients?
 
batten_down said:
With the millions of pics you've gone thru, I bet you've seen some really cool stuff. Have you compiled a "best of?" Are you able to share some with us, or do the belong to your clients?
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Unfortunately, all the really cool bucks I've got on cam are clients' pictures, and I never share clients' pictures.

I just had to order another 5-terabyte backup drive to hold pictures. My current one is almost full. At last count I have 3.1 million trail-camera images.

Of the pics I can share, this is the best buck I've ever got on cam from my place. I had a long history with him. When this picture was taken, he was 7 1/2 years old, had 15 scoreable points, and I put him in the mid-160s score-wise:
 

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BSK said:
Unfortunately, all the really cool bucks I've got on cam are clients' pictures, and I never share clients' pictures.

I just had to order another 5-terabyte backup drive to hold pictures. My current one is almost full. At last count I have 3.1 million trail-camera images.

Of the pics I can share, this is the best buck I've ever got on cam from my place. I had a long history with him. When this picture was taken, he was 7 1/2 years old, had 15 scoreable points, and I put him in the mid-160s score-wise:
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10-4

Nice buck👍🏻
 
Although the best client pictures are the naked people. For some reason, people are always looking for an out-of-the-way place to "get it on." Sometimes that's very near a trail-camera!

Had one camera right along the Harpeth River, which is popular with canoeists. A female "ran into the bushes" to relieve herself. Guess she didn't see that camera 10 feet from her when she dropped trou!
 
LenS said:
BSK,
So in seeing all of these hundreds of thousands of photos, just how rare is a 150" buck in Tennessee?
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Used to be exceptionally rare. Not so much anymore. However, in MOST areas of TN, the average mature buck is still somewhere around 120. The bell curve distribution of scores means 150+ is still a small percentage of all mature bucks (5%?). That said, there are a LOT more mature bucks in TN than there used to be. Even at 5% (1 in 20 mature bucks), that means 150+ bucks are a lot more common than they used to be. The one geographic exception is the sinkhole plain of northcentral TN. I would add 10 inches to the average score per age-class in that area, making 150+ more common. In fact, I see several 150+ 3 1/2 year-olds in that area each year.

And as for mature bucks, I used to think getting any local population above 15% mature bucks (of all bucks 1 1/2+) was virtually impossible. But now - for large properties doing mature buck only harvest practices - I've seen them top 15%. I've even seen a couple of places touch the 20% mark. But these are very large properties where very few bucks are being killed each year, and all of those are mature.
 
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BSK said:
However, in MOST areas of TN, the average mature buck is still somewhere around 120.
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You really believe it's that high STATEWIDE?

As to the potential vs the survivors making it to maturity,
HUGE differences can depend as much on the amount & type of hunting
as what part of TN?

BSK said:
The bell curve distribution of scores means 150+ is still a small percentage of all mature bucks (5%?).
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I'm assuming you're meaning around 5% of bucks at birth have realistic potential in TN to hit 150 IF they survive to maturity?

BSK said:
The one geographic exception is the sinkhole plain of northcentral TN. I would add 10 inches to the average score per age-class in that area, making 150+ more common. In fact, I see several 150+ 3 1/2 year-olds in that area each year.
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Are you including the Nashville Basin as a part of this sinkhole plain?

I do know the western edge of this sinkhole plain is near the Montgomery-Stewart County line (or the Cumberland River). When you go to the west side of the Cumberland River (in Stewart County), the 3 1/2-yr-old bucks will have @ 10 inches lower scores on average. Similar is true in much of TN simply by being on the north side of the TN-KY state line.
 
TheLBLman said:
You really believe it's that high STATEWIDE?

As to the potential vs the survivors making it to maturity,
HUGE differences can depend as much on the amount & type of hunting
as what part of TN?
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No, that is actual hard data for most of TN. The average mature buck I see on cam is right around 120. However, I see plenty around 90 (and lower), and a few up near 160.

TheLBLman said:
I'm assuming you're meaning around 5% of bucks at birth have realistic potential in TN to hit 150 IF they survive to maturity?
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No actual bucks in populations. Yeah, I would say my estimate of 1 in 20 is too high. Probably more like 1 in 30 or 1 in 35. I would have to go back and look through my census records to get a solid number. But I see more 150+ bucks in censuses than you would think.

TheLBLman said:
Are you including the Nashville Basin as a part of this sinkhole plain?
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No. This is the geographic region of the sinkhole plain:
 

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TheLBLman said:
Yep, mostly in Kentucky.

You don't find parts of Davidson & Williamson Counties to be comparable in buck antler growth?
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Not to the sinkhole plain. Bucks in that region of TN equal anything I've seen from the KY side of the region.

Southern Davidson and Williamson are also areas with above average antler growth, but not like the sinkhole plain. I've done three photo censuses in the Springfield TN region, and what I saw blew my mind. You would think you were in southern Illinois.
 
BSK said:
For all those running summer photo censuses, I'm sure your "fun" has just begun. Looking at thousands of trail-camera pictures tends to turn your brain to mush.

Just got my first week of pictures from clients. 50,000 images in one week. Fun! :rolleyes: :oops:
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BSK, me and you are about to go in business together on some AI photo analysis software!
 
DeerCamp said:
BSK, me and you are about to go in business together on some AI photo analysis software!
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I just have a hard time believing AI could be taught to identify individual bucks. Sometimes the differences are shockingly minor. Especially 8-pointers. I'll have censuses where I literally have 60+ 8-pointers, and a bunch of them look very similar. The difference usually comes down to slight variations in browtine placement, length, and tilt.

THAT is the process that slows me down. When it comes to getting the total deer counts (antlered bucks, adult does, and fawns) I can rip through those. I generally run through about 1 picture every 2 seconds. But identifying bucks can be a brutally long process. I keep a spreadsheet with all the identified bucks (by number), their age, basic-frame points, actual points, and then a brief description of the buck's antlers to help in making him stand out from others, such as: "Medium 8, tines tilt forward, G2s longer than G3s, left G3 slightly longer than right, right brow longer and set up beam farther than left." That sort of thing. Anything to help make him unique as I read down the list of 8-point bucks.
 

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