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Management as Hunting Season Approaches

by Cody Zabransky

As hunting season quickly approaches or has already approached under some programs, deer hunting clothes come out of their storage containers, temperatures finally begin to drop, trigger fingers itch, and bowhunters polish their skills. With the excitement of deer season, it’s also time to hone our management skills. We need to know which deer are ripe for the taking. Assigning an age to deer isn’t an exact science, requiring a keen eye, a good set of optics, and knowledge of what to look for to be accurate. With the dry summer that plagued many parts of the U.S., the antlers on the bucks you’ve been letting walk for the past couple of years may be deceiving. Decreased antler size and poor body condition can challenge a hunter’s ability to accurately age deer.

When aging deer, I’m reminded of those long Friday afternoons as an undergraduate identifying birds and using their General Impression and Stature (GIS). While I rolled my eyes and went on with my binoculars and birding book (of course while wishing I was holding my rifle instead of the book), I began thinking about how this might apply to identifying deer. I’m not discounting the importance of all of the characteristics of a deer that hunters should look for in aging a deer on the hoof. In fact, they are very important to the GIS of a deer. A drooping belly, sagging back, and a “roman” nose make up parts of the GIS. Behavior of a deer, be it a buck or doe, should play a major role in helping you determine the age of a deer.

The first deer to walk out to a feeder or a roadway is generally a young deer, eager to find something to eat. As more and more deer trickle in, you’ll notice different behaviors from different deer. The young deer are more eager about eating, less aware of their surroundings and move with a notable “spring” in their step and often are playful. The older deer seem to move like many of our slowing friends, since that could never be us, right? Protecting exceptional, younger bucks is key to trophy management and taking the time to observe the behavior characteristic in aging deer can help reduce mistakes in harvest.

For those of you who get a bad case of buck fever when deer step out, keep a list of things to look for when making your next important management decision. No one bit of criteria should overrule the others, but they should be considered together. Below is a short list that I use when evaluating the age of the deer that I might harvest:

1. How does the deer carry itself?

• Is there a spring in its step, does it walk in like everything hurts, or somewhere in between?


• How cautious is the deer as it makes its way into the open?


2. How would you classify the body type of the deer?

• Does the deer look athletic or like a couch potato?


• Look for the presence of a belly, sagging back, and heavily stained tarsals.


3. What impression does the face of the deer give you?

• Look for loose skin, droopy eyebrows, and signs of scarring.


4. With bucks, what do his antlers look like?

• Antler characteristics are a good indicator of age in bucks


• How large are the antlers?


• Understand the colors that polished antlers of older bucks in your area look like

Brushing up on aging deer on the hoof can greatly advance your deer management program. Following the harvest guidelines set forth by your Tecomate consultant will require that hunters know the difference between young, middle-aged, and mature deer for proper implementation as harvest changes for each age class. A deer having a small 8-point frame would be considered a cull as a middle-aged buck, but if he was only a year and a half old, he might have the makings of the next county record deer. Just as everyone told you when you were a kid, practice makes perfect! There are videos available that show pictures and video of deer, allow you time to guess the age and then give you the age of the deer to compare your estimate. While they aren’t always perfect, they will help you develop the fundamentals of aging on the hoof. These videos make a great activity to do with friends or your young hunting partner on rainy days to keep them focused for when that big buck appears.

Posted by Cody Zabransky on 10/19 at 04:24 PM
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