No point I don’t reckon but the first buck I think is older than 4-5 with a crappy rack. Unless my judgment is wrong. I’m fairly new to deer hunting again I hunted when younger but got back into about 8 years ago and yes def still learning. And this property is 200 acres.

Ah ok I gotcha. Yeah he might be that old. Hard to say.

I don't shoot old deer cause they messed up. I usually shoot 5 year old but not always. I hav had a few crappie 5s that i let walk. To what Matt said - i had an ugly cull at 5. Never had chance to shoot him and was not sure i would. Next hear he grew considerably - still a cull - but much nicer and i shot him as a 213 pound 6 year old that i skull mounted

We operate off of #1 and have been pretty successful at it. Of course we are a core group of deer hunters that know we all are pretty good at field judging. Unless it is a kid that has never killed a buck before we are kinda particular about the guests we take.

After several years of using cementum aging I’ve also decided putting a year age on a deer is a joke. I only try to identify juvenile, mature, and senior. That buck is senior.

Yep. Lumping them into age categories rather than specific years is far more accurate. Same with tooth wear. You can identify fawns, yearlings, and 2+ with accuracy. After that there’s a whole lot more that can determine tooth wear for an individual deer.

An outfitter in Alabama said he went to high fence after trying to manage his deer for about 10 years and not seeing antler improvements. Some of that could have been no trigger restraint, but genes are a big factor. There are a few folks here that actually have land in the right areas and trigger restraint. One study in a no hunting area showed the progression of a buck and it's best rack was at age 7. How many folks could allow a deer to get to seven, when any buck is a trophy in some areas? Some folks are going to take time off and have everything set up to take out the older age class bucks. Then if someone takes out the younger class deer everyone wants to complain about no bucks. It can be really frustrating when you have that one guy shooting all the good deer. Some small bucks can become freaks if left to grow, even in Alabama. Over the years you hear and see more of those freak bucks that still seem to make it to get a large rack. The tough part is trying to be the lucky one to be in front of the big one. Big bucks are not hard to kill, it's just trying to get the buck killers to let a few go every now and then.