Yager Ridge

How can you tell a buck’s age just by their appearance? Part 2. In this video, I am going to cover the difference between 3.5-4.5 yr old bucks and why it matters.

Just to review here’s 3 reasons why you should know how to age bucks by their body and at the end of the video I will explain how.

Number 3: Allowing bucks to age gives them time to spread their genetics. Obvious one right. If you kill it before it breeds, you won’t have good antler diversity.

Number 2: A balanced age structure improves the overall deer herd.

Number 1: Not shooting younger bucks and taking the correct number of does helps balance the buck to doe deer population ratio.

So how can you tell a bucks age?

3.5 year old buck.

Antlers are 70-80% of potential. Spread is outside of the ears and above 8 points with much more mass than a 2.5 year old.

Head is starting to carry more thickness on the top.

The back is sloping downward from back to front.

Tight belly line from front legs to back legs.

Neck will start to become much more muscular.

Legs are now proportionate to the body.

4.5 year old buck.

Antlers are 80-90% of potential. much wider than the ears. Antlers range around 10 points plus and this is an impressive buck at this point and it takes discipline to pass this buck up.

Head has a blocky appearance.

The back is straight from back to front.

The belly is a straight line.

Neck is extremely muscular.

Legs are muscular and proportionate to the body.

Some hunters say it is very hard to tell the difference between a 3.5 and 4.5 yr old buck. The main things to look for is the blockier head coupled with the back in a straight line. It can be hard to tell without watching these bucks from season to season on trail cameras. Follow for part 3 where I cover the difference between 5.5 and 6.5 yr old bucks.