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Summer Buck Opinion

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DedicatedShooter

New Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2022
Messages
31
Location
VA
Just pulled these two pictures off a cam this past weekend. What I find interesting is how developed the antlers are on the smaller buck compared to the bigger one. A few questions for you all:

1. Why do you suppose one buck is more developed at this point than the other? Is it an illusion because the total antler mass developed on both bucks so far seems about equal?

2. What do you anticipate these bucks will look like once the velvet is rubbed off? What are your estimates on final antler sizes for each? How old do you think these two are?

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3. Do you think the "wide" summer buck could be the same deer as the one in the nighttime photos from this past December? Nighttime and summer photo spots are both on the same 40acre piece of property.

Appreciate the insight and speculation, always fun to compare pics and pick them apart even though we'll never fully understand deer and what's going on the woods 100% of the time.

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I actually bet body size is very similar on those deer. I think the left one looks smaller because he appears to be a little bit lower and father away from the camera. Racks are probably very similar as well. Camera angle, deer angle, body positioning, head positioning, etc... All can cause optical illusions so it's very hard to make judgements based off game camera pics. Either way you have 2 nice deer there and in my opinion in 2-3 year old range. Guessing that off of my experience based on body size, but that can change regionally. So depending on where you are located they could potentially be older or younger. Deer growth greatly varies from state to state and even within the same state.
 
jsh909 said:
I actually bet body size is very similar on those deer. I think the left one looks smaller because he appears to be a little bit lower and father away from the camera. Racks are probably very similar as well. Camera angle, deer angle, body positioning, head positioning, etc... All can cause optical illusions so it's very hard to make judgements based off game camera pics. Either way you have 2 nice deer there and in my opinion in 2-3 year old range. Guessing that off of my experience based on body size, but that can change regionally. So depending on where you are located they could potentially be older or younger. Deer growth greatly varies from state to state and even within the same state.
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Really appreciate the input. These two stood around here for a little bit so I've got several other pictures, I'll post them on here tonight after I'm home. These deer are in Northern VA, where I live/work now. Compared to OH deer (where I am from), these deer are smaller in the body, or so I've noticed since hunting both here and back in OH. I sincerely hope these guys are around come Oct, specifically the one on the right because he is WIDE.
 
DedicatedShooter said:
Really appreciate the input. These two stood around here for a little bit so I've got several other pictures, I'll post them on here tonight after I'm home. These deer are in Northern VA, where I live/work now. Compared to OH deer (where I am from), these deer are smaller in the body, or so I've noticed since hunting both here and back in OH. I sincerely hope these guys are around come Oct, specifically the one on the right because he is WIDE.
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I am from Ohio as well so it gets kind of fuzzy. I always try to age off of body not antlers. I still stand by my aging though given your info VA deer are typically a little bit smaller than ours in body
 
DedicatedShooter said:
Really appreciate the input. These two stood around here for a little bit so I've got several other pictures, I'll post them on here tonight after I'm home. These deer are in Northern VA, where I live/work now. Compared to OH deer (where I am from), these deer are smaller in the body, or so I've noticed since hunting both here and back in OH. I sincerely hope these guys are around come Oct, specifically the one on the right because he is WIDE.
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Yea that sucker is way past his ears and has big bases. Its hard for me to estimate the age on the wide one and in the summer it can be difficult to get a good read with their thinner necks but I would guess that the taller 8 is 3ish and the wider one is 4+ based on his body in the second picture and how big his pedicles look. However, data has shown that no-one can really tell a deer's age from a few trail camera pics with no history reliably I believe
 
BackSpasm said:
Yea that sucker is way past his ears and has big bases. Its hard for me to estimate the age on the wide one and in the summer it can be difficult to get a good read with their thinner necks but I would guess that the taller 8 is 3ish and the wider one is 4+ based on his body in the second picture and how big his pedicles look. However, data has shown that no-one can really tell a deer's age from a few trail camera pics with no history reliably I believe
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Completely agree on that last point, always fun to try and estimate and see what other folks think. I also noticed his bases and can’t ignore that width. Sweet baby Jesus. Most likely I’ll never see him after 1 Oct haha.
 
DedicatedShooter said:
Really appreciate the input. These two stood around here for a little bit so I've got several other pictures, I'll post them on here tonight after I'm home. These deer are in Northern VA, where I live/work now. Compared to OH deer (where I am from), these deer are smaller in the body, or so I've noticed since hunting both here and back in OH. I sincerely hope these guys are around come Oct, specifically the one on the right because he is WIDE.
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Bases are huge too!
 
BTaylor said:
I am leaning towards 2.5 for the smaller racked deer and 3.5 for the wide buck. Necks still hit really high on the chest and not really any loose skin at the brisket that would indicate older. Really nice looking deer.
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That's what I was looking at as well, plus they don't have the belly sag of a deer nearing the 4.5-5 year mark in my opinion.

Either way they are both awesome deer and when you are at full draw on one the age will be irrelevant. Both will most likely have wonderful tine length and mass.
 
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Started digging through some old pictures and I wonder if the the wide buck is this guy. These pics were taken on a rub about 100yds away from these recent summer pics. Feisty guy though, definitely a fighter.

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Couple of beauties there. Hopefully you get pics again in a month then 2 months. Love to see the growth on the big boys. Keep us posted.
 
Glad someone is getting some nice bucks on cams. Only seeing 2.5 year olds on the private I hunt.
 
Gator said:
Everything is possible. I'd still bet the narrow one ends up with longer tines at the end.
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It'd be utter bull for me to say one way or another, I have absolutely 0 expertise on this. Actually, I had been wondering some of the same things as OP. I saw a buck here last week that was smaller but similar in shape to the wide one that OP posted, with points just forming. I've seen others earlier this year with points that seem grown out much more. I don't know if heavier wider racked bucks have more inches of growth into width (and mass) and therefore come along slower or not. A sample set of internet pictures isn't sufficient for more than inference, other than what's possible.

Here is one (below) which seemed to come along a bit earlier and then slow down quite a bit.



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