Looking at deer feet

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JoeRE
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Looking at deer feet

Unread postby JoeRE » Tue Feb 05, 2013 6:56 am

I didn't want to hijack Jons thread. I wanted show some big buck feet and how unique they often are. I think Dan summed it up perfectly in saying tracks can be unique as antlers are.

This is the right front hoof of a 4 or 5 year old buck. Size wise it is a very 'average' track but there are many distinguishing features when you look closer. The inside surface of the hoof is concave and one toe is quite a bit shorter (lopsided toes are very common though).
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This is the same buck's track a couple weeks earlier before I got him (Chalk that up to a bit of luck, it wasn't like I took that first pic knowing I was going to take the second two weeks later!) See the lopsided toe and concave inner hoof? (Keep in mind the track is the mirror of the hoof, everything is reversed in the two photographs because you are looking at the face of the hoof.
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This pic is of a 5 or 6 year old buck with a very narrow hoof. The hoof is very long for the width though, it is very distinctive. Large but narrow tracks often end up being big old does but there are exceptions and you can tell most of them apart by how the deer leaving the track carries his/her weight. Image

This is a very small hoof for a big buck...it was one found dead, a 9+ year old buck that I posted about a while ago. It still has distinguishing features but I did not look close enough to differentiate it from big doe tracks and younger buck tracks so I never could figure out what his foot looked like until it was too late.
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One thing to keep in mind while looking at hooves...they shrink (dry up?) once the animal is dead. Its weird, a really big buck hoof might be the size of a big doe track after laying out in the elements for a month.

Anybody else do this? Take pictures of hooves they could share?
Last edited by JoeRE on Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:50 am, edited 1 time in total.


dan
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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby dan » Tue Feb 05, 2013 8:18 am

Great post!
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Milk Weed Seed
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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby Milk Weed Seed » Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:39 am

Very cool post! Great idea to photograph tracks. Wish I had thought of this a long time ago.......
I always like to look at their hooves for awhile, just something about them that always fascinated me about them?

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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby G3s » Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:18 am

I will have to check the feet from my deer from this year. I did save the feet from both of my bucks this year as well as a couple of does...I will see if there are any distinguishing characteristics.
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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby Milk Weed Seed » Tue Feb 05, 2013 12:33 pm

G3s wrote:I will have to check the feet from my deer from this year. I did save the feet from both of my bucks this year as well as a couple of does...I will see if there are any distinguishing characteristics.

Guarantee you will find unique traits like a finger print.

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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby Jackson Marsh » Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:52 pm

Cool pics! Good post,

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BigHills BuckHunter
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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:08 pm

Great post! Thank you for sharing.

I need to learn more about tracks and how to distinguish them. That could give us hunters a big advantage.
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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby Darin » Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:11 pm

BigHills BuckHunter wrote:Great post! Thank you for sharing.

I need to learn more about tracks and how to distinguish them. That could give us hunters a big advantage.

X2! Very good post! Ive never really looked into tracks like this. Got me interested now.

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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby admiral04 » Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:37 pm

Great post! Thnx

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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:05 am

Good post Joe!

Can you publish the weights of each deer that go along with the age (if you can remember)?
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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby adrenalin » Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:57 am

I agree on some bucks not having as big of feet as you would think. I like to look at the bucks stride also. You can always tell by how far apart there steps are if it is a big buck also. Nice pictures.

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Re: Looking at deer feet

Unread postby JoeRE » Wed Feb 06, 2013 6:09 am

Edcyclopedia wrote:Good post Joe!

Can you publish the weights of each deer that go along with the age (if you can remember)?


Sure, I can tell you about what they weighed...I didn't weigh any of them live weight for one reason or another but I think I know pretty closely.

The buck from photo #1 and #2, the 4 or 5 year old with an "average big buck track" weighed about 240 lbs on the hoof (shot pre-rut). He was a heavy 10 pointer, gross in the low 140s.

The buck from photo #3, with the long and narrow hoof was a bruiser, close to 260 lbs on the hoof (shot pre-rut). He was a 12 pointer, gross low 160s...wouldn't have guessed that from the lady-like hoof!!

The buck from photo #4, the 9+ year old "Old Eight" died post rut and was extremely run down, probably weighed between 180 and 200 when he died. In his prime at age 5 he probably weighed 250ish. Eight point, gross around 140.

I don't think there is any kind of correlation between track size and body size. Just like my 6'7" brother wears size 12 shoes and I wear size 15s or 16s, and am 6'5" lol. You can tell heavy deer leave deeper tracks than lighter deer on the same ground but that's about it.

It is a good point about noticing the stride of a deer. That can be a telltale difference between a small-footed mature buck and a smaller/younger deer with the same size hoof. It is easy to see in a nice tracking snow on flat ground.

One of the biggest differences between buck's feet is the curvature of the front half of the hoof. Some toes are almost square, some are very pointy, and everything in between. Your eye can be very good at distinguishing differences like that if you train them.

The biggest antlered buck I ever chased did have the biggest track I have ever seen but that is just a coincidence. His front feet had almost square toes and left walking tracks 2-5/8" wide as a 6 year old deer...he grossed just a couple inches short of 200". Was super run down post rut and probably weighed around 200. I wasn't the lucky hunter.

Glad everybody liked the pics. I have a couple more floating around but cannot find them :think:

Joe


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