A very nice animal but i am not sure i would see him as young.
Well done for having the courage to leave this animal. No doubt he will have done some good in this rut.
To many people are of the 'see it...shoot it' brigade and then wonder why it is that they never have any animals this big. It's because you can only kill them once and they need to get older to get bigger!!
Once again well done, his time will come and then you'll get your reward for being patient.
i had two last year on my ground that looked medal class i stalked into those on many occasions and chose to leave them till after the rut there were plenty of others to take , the rut came and went and i never saw those two again ,atb wayne
100% in agreement with everything,especially age rather than head size as a management gauge.I am sort of in agreement with jamross65 here, while one should have a management plan it should be based on age not on antlers
60% young
20% middle aged
20% old
As can be seen the majority of your Buck cull should be youngsters ie yearling's
Why not assess a Buck by his antlers? first let me say its impossible to age a Buck just by looking at his antlers
by all means look at the antlers they can help in ageing an animal when taken alongside other factors , no one factor should by taken as a sign of age but when compiled will give you an idea first how does he walk a young g Buck walks with his neck erect as he gets older the neck is at an angle to his body an old Buck will walk with his neck straight out in line with his back, and old Buck tends to have a baggy belly, just like a lot of middle aged men[talking about myself again]
an old Buck tends to have a grey grizzled face with a patch of curly hair between the antlers similar to what you
would see on a bull, from around age seven you will often notice the outside edges of the coronets
start to slope down.
The size of a Bucks antlers can vary from year to year depending various factors food availability being one of the main ones, though the basic shape normally stays the same, so what looks a promising Buck this year, you may class as a cull buck next year.
Bucks in a good area may produce six points on a first head but these are the first Bucks to be driven away
While a mature Buck may allow a poor quality youngster on his territory as does not see him as a threat he certainly won't allow a promising Buck.
Once driven off and having to take up residence in a poorer area that Buck may never again produce the quality of head as he did as a yearling.
The only way to manage a roe population is by age and body condition, body condition will be your indicator of age
As for the comments about leaving a good Buck till after the rut it does not really make sense, (a) you may never see him again (b) if he is a mature Buck his genes will already have been passed on in previous years, you may not have noticed him previously because his head was not as good but his Genes would have been the same they have not changed just because he has grown a bigger head
If you have a small population of Roe and no need to make cull figures you could leave a young or middle aged Buck or two to see how they develop but you may well be disappointed, they will reach their prime around 6 years of age and there is nothing to gain in the following years after that by his seventh year he should be in your cull plan as old and its time to take them out.
Stick to the cull plan age ratio wise and the heads will take care of themselves.
My answers in red
You are wrong and I will tell you why. His time came when this photo was take.
The OP suggests that by leaving this buck it should become a medal???? Can you offer an explanation then to back that theory up and tell us why you agree that this buck is young and has years of improvement still to come to achieve that medal status you appear to desire? The OP just states he has been seeing it for a while now, I assume this relates to this season and not several years to not know for certain it's rough age given the assumed young age?
Young bucks are typically straight in the back, no sagging back or stomach. They are also very much more angular in the haunches. The 'theory' that leaving a younger animal to mature further and therefore get larger antlers is not theory at all. Given equal factors of weather, disturbance, and food supply bucks do get larger until they start to go back usually at approx 6-7 years old.
As I said in my first post, IMO the only way to know for certain what to pick and choose from is by looking at some areas that produce a lot of big or medal class bucks that are seen regularly on the ground and away from borders to neighbours.
Your area is unique to you. Ask any farmer if his fields are the same as those 1 mile away and he'll tell you no. Bucks are equally so
The fact of the matter is that unless you are very close it is difficult to assess the age and quality of the head, and they all look bigger on the hoof. To me he actually does not look that young and that is also the opinion of a friend of mine who is a very experienced roe stalker. There was a thread on here not that long ago discussing the genes in male and female deer and how they impart that quality on their offspring. If the OP reckons that by leaving this animal another year he is going to shoot a medal that suggests a relatively ill informed approach and perhaps from someone relatively new to deer management, no disrespect intended. By your argument the country would be coming down with medal class bucks simply by leaving them to old age??? Eh...
Mature bucks not old ones produce the best heads. I have yet to see a 3 year old silver or gold medal. Fact is that if you are shooting everything as you see it then yes of course you will shoot some large animals but over time your quality will begin to suffer
A mate of mine shot a huge gold earlier this year that had not been seen on the ground for the last few years. It just appeared and he shot it. Your suggesting he should have left it? These opportunities will not necessarily repeat themselves. So what if this buck does good inthe rut this year, he did good inthe rut more than likely for the last 2 or 3 years!
'A mate of mine shot a huge gold earlier this year that had not been seen on the ground for the last few years.' Kinda what I've been saying really. You just shot yourself in the foot. Leave them for a couple more years, they go away, then they come back and they're bigger.
What does 'having the courage to leave it' actually mean? Does that raise you to a more elevated position of 'stalker greatness' because you can walk away from a buck????
I never said I was any better by leaving anything. Just you've got to be a bit brave that some **** on the boundary won't shoot it.
A yearling buck can throw a 6 point head so don't assume anything with regards to age by looking at its antlers.
I have shot enough deer in my life to have no desperation to shoot everything I see, but I have also left enough deer to know that they may never be seen again. The average life expectancy of roebucks is between 6 and 7 years, so the boy in this picture may not be around in a season or twos time.
Last night I was out for Sika stags. I watched a group of 3 come across the field towards me. A big 8 point stag that anyone would have been happy bangingon their wall, a spikes and a really nice 6 pointer. my intention was to obviously shoot one of the lesser beasts and leave the 8 pointer in the hope of getting him with a guest. e was big but I know there are a lot better on the ground. Anyway, they got to around 200yds and I had the safety off waiting for a broadside. Then another stag came running towards them and they turned and started walking away from me. The light was going and and the only beast that presented a **** was the big 8 pointer, so he was shot. I have a hefty cull to make and he counted towards it. It's that simple.
There are stags running about just now that he will have sired so why worry?
If you have cull targets to meet then they must always take priority. If you see one you shoot it. Most people and I suspect the OP aswell do not have those targets and can pick and choose what they shoot. We should equally applaud those who decide to leave an animal as those who decide to shoot one. And we should not chastise this man just because he decided not to shoot.