Seeing the same bucks year after year

[Hildebrand]

So this is a two-fold question. How do you guys determine a buck is the same buck year after year? I have no idea if one of the bucks I see makes it to the next year. How do you learn to determine this?

The next part to my question is I get a lot of bucks on camera over the year. But it's a lot of different bucks. Every summer no matter crops in the field I will get a bachelor group of bucks on a camera and there will always be one giant buck in that group but it's a one-time picture and I won't ever see him again. Then most years I'll have one good buck where I will get a few weeks' worths of summer pictures and then gone. The woods is super thick as well.

[Ol Split ( ) Toes]

As far as telling them year to year there rack will obviously change but they usually keep certain characteristics from year to year whatever that may be, but usually not to hard to tell.

A buck with 9 inch brows generally won't follow up with 3 inch brows the next year

[Brad]

I don't have an answer to your question... but I did find one thing very interesting. The giant bucks you see with bachelor groups, but only get one pic, do you see the other bucks from the group? For some reason, I immediately thought those bucks are probably just avoiding your camera, and you only got the first pic of them because they didn't know the camera was there until it took their pic. Just curious.

[Jdw]

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Here are some pictures of bucks I have gotten pictures of for multiple seasons.
The date is stamped on the picture.

[Jdw]

I look at the antlers and body for clues. Behavior can tip you off also.

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[Jdw]

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[Hildebrand]

I don't have an answer to your question... but I did find one thing very interesting. The giant bucks you see with bachelor groups, but only get one pic, do you see the other bucks from the group? For some reason, I immediately thought those bucks are probably just avoiding your camera, and you only got the first pic of them because they didn't know the camera was there until it took their pic. Just curious.

Very good point you bring up. I can't say for certain one way or another. I will dig into trail camera photos and see if that's the case. The big guy always stands out so it's easy to see if it's the same buck. But just off the top of my head, it seems like the group is one and done. I have multiple trail cameras out and i am not one to check them much. Usually, once summer is all and then after the season I collect. I always run cells as well

[Jdw]

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Here are a few more.

Sorry for the work picture I accidentally posted.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

I hate scenting up areas but if I get pics then all the sudden nothing.. I’m moving my cams around. Also it is not uncommon for me to get a pick of a buck only once.. staring at the camera.. Generally I have to adjust to another trail he’s using to bypass the original cam position to pick him back up..and get the cam high in the tree so it doesn’t spook him. Like 8-10ft. This is generally only an issue if it’s night photos and not a black flash cam.

In the summer just for inventory I would consider a mineral sight or salt lick.

The last few yrs is the first I’ve actually been somewhere deer aren’t dead by 2.5 yr old. If you study the racks you can follow along. The bigger they are the easier for me to tell. The 1 and some 2 yr olds don’t have defined enough racks but say a 3 yr old on don’t seem like they loose that generally frame. Arched tines, bladed tines, narrow and tall or wide and short. Seems to grow generally the same style from what I’ve seen. Enough so I can recognize it.

[1STRANGEWILDERNESS]

It took me a bit to realize this buck was the same one I had seen two yr prior.

Notice the arched tines and even down to crooks or (bends) in tines

[dusters]

As to your first question, a lot of deer will have a unique characteristic you can look for. For example, here is a ten I had on camera two seasons ago and last season. Knew it was the same buck immediately due to the browtine on his left side that is big and curls. Bucks tend to keep the same rack shape and characteristics, just bigger year to year.

[Hildebrand]

sounds like I need to look more into the deer when looking at pictures to spot things out.

[WV Bowhunter]

Here’s the buck I shot in 2021 and a trail cam from 2020.

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He moved his core area about 1/2 a mile but I believe it was because the big buck running that area was killed in 2020 and he took it over in 2021.

[Lockdown]

You really have to try and get to know the specifics of a buck’s rack to recognize him from year to year. Sometimes it’s very obvious, other times not so much.

For example if a generic looking 2 year old 8 scoring roughly 100” turns into a 130” ten with some extra character (split tines, stickers, etc) as a 3.5, it can be really tough to tell.

My personal best buck was a 125ish ten as a suspected 3.5 yr old. The following year I had him on cam for several weeks before I even made the correlation which is nuts because I was keeping an eye out for him. He put on another 30+ inches and reached monster status. Only reason I knew it was him was because I recognized a scar on his side.

Pay close attention to main beam shape and tip to tip spread. That often stays pretty consistent. Also things like tine spacing. Stickers and splits can come and go pretty easy, but the main frame shape and proportion typically doesn’t change a whole lot. It just adds inches year to year.

[Jdw]

Here’s one that added a lot in one year from 2-3.

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I didn’t make the connection until I held the sheds from both years.