Young Roe Buck?

Nick Fahey

Well-Known Member
Earlier this week our deer group got together to go over our cull cards and I showed them this photo of a young buck I shot out calling roe (at least I think it is a young buck). Anyway the history of it was as follows. I was out with my mum who was over from NZ and we had not seen any roe bucks apart from this one and as she was leaving the next day, I decided to shoot it rather than leave it. Anyway, although I had not thought it was too good as we where 180-200yds away, (i.e. head shot, which usually destroys the skull), I knew it was a bit good and even more so when I got to it. I probably should have left it for this year or next year. To cut a long story short one of the guys in our group was pretty disappointed and said that he felt it was a very good head for our area (west bucks). I know very little about judging roe buck trophy potential, coming from NZ. I had always been told the antlers had to be twice the length of the ears for it to be a medal, which this was not. I also have when stalking on a syndicate in Hampshire seen much heavier antlered roe bucks, therefore I thought I might post up the images so I can find out if it is any good or not and if it is worth getting it measured or not. I realise even if it is not a good head, it may be a good head for our area, but if it is agreed that it is not too good, then this should be a mitigating factor to allay the fears of my disgruntled stalking partner. . photo.JPGphoto2.JPG Here are the photos from the night. Not great quality but off a camera phone.
Here are the photos of the head which is still in my freezer.
shooting etc 033.jpgshooting etc 034.jpgshooting etc 035.jpgshooting etc 036.jpgshooting etc 037.jpgshooting etc 038.jpgshooting etc 039.jpgshooting etc 040.jpg
Interested to hear your thoughts on this.
Cheers
Nick
 
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Not sure about the quality of it, but head shooting it certainly is not good a good idea, especially not at that range.
IMHO I would have left it. But thats just me.
 
This is why I would not like to be part of a syndicate. I am in favor of keeping a good stand buck until after the rut but I wouldn't like someone telling me that I shouldn't have shot an animal when given the opportunity they might have shot it themselves.

In this case I wouldn't like to say if you should have left him or not as I don't know the quality of roe on your area. If it was my area I would also be looking at a rough estimation of age and also body weight and health before I decided to pull the trigger. My cull is always planned in advance with all the normal contributing factors. A good stand buck might be left but apart from that the only criteria I would try to go by is 60% young, 20% middle aged and %20 old (no button bucks). Anything left within that plan is fair game.

As for the head shot, you wouldn't be doing that on my Deer Management Group at any distance no matter how good a shot you are.
 
How come the heads not blown to bits what caliber did you use ? its a nice head probably better left to get older dont think its a medal not thick enough but you would need to get it boiled out and measured
 
How come the heads not blown to bits what caliber did you use ? its a nice head probably better left to get older dont think its a medal not thick enough but you would need to get it boiled out and measured
Yeah that's what I thought. It is promising but nothing more than that.
Cal was .243, 70g pill from memory
 
Unfortunately when you take shots at that range, unless you have a huge magnification scope, you're not going to know what you're shooting at. Sorry but this is obviously going to turn into a head shot post as very few people are going to side with you on this one. Especially after seeing so many posts showing deer with mutilated jaws on here recently. I thought that they were caused by poachers but now I'm wondering!
 
Yeah that's what I thought. It is promising but nothing more than that.
Cal was .243, 70g pill from memory

Hate to be the one to bring this up but shooting roe in england with a 70gr bullet?
As far as i'm aware there is no legal minimum weight in england & wales (unlike Scotland), although any bullet under 100gr would have to be going very fast indeed (within the limits of safety or self destruction) to achieve 1700ft lbs.
 
Hate to be the one to bring this up but shooting roe in england with a 70gr bullet?
As far as i'm aware there is no legal minimum weight in england & wales (unlike Scotland), although any bullet under 100gr would have to be going very fast indeed (within the limits of safety or self destruction) to achieve 1700ft lbs.

I thought the same but this scared me even more as it's obviously not the only round the OP uses so then wondered how he could be so sure of his bullet placement? I then started to think that hitting the target was just plain lucky! I then wondered if he was coming back to Hampshire any time soon which I know shouldn't matter as the poor deer are going to suffer regardless of the county they're wounded in. However I don't want to see it! Know what I'm saying???
 
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Nick,

In answer to your question.

I would say it's a young buck ~

Reasons ~

1) Level Coronets

2) Pointed not Rounded points.

3) Very little thickness at bases and still a tall head with longish points.

Of course its area dependent but generally these are good guides.

As for a trophy being twice the length of the ears not very true at all. Weight / Volume a much bigger factor in medal scoring than length.

Yes you probably should have left it but then someone else would probably have shot it in the syndicate wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

Alex
 
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