How old is this mountain buck?

[VaBowKill5]

I’m not usually one to make posts like this but this year I started investing some time into a very hard to get to price of public in the mountains. I’m a trail camera guru so I took several back in there in October and found multiple bucks I’d be happy with. However, 2 of the biggest ones I had on camera ended up getting a beam broken off and I can’t help but think it takes an old bruiser to break a heavy beam off right above the brow tine. I got this buck in there and he’s a cool deer but only has 2 points on his right side. How old do y’all think he is? And could he be the one breaking beams?

[VaBowKill5]

Here’s the 2 bucks that got busted up.

[brancher147]

I don’t much like guessing age much. But I would say mature and probably 5+. I hunted a similar looking buck for a few years that I guessed 5 or 6 then a guy killed him and said he had watched him for 7 years. Some years he had a big rack some smaller but always had messed up 3 point side.

[VaBowKill5]

I think the same this one particular ridge has been destroyed with buck sign the last 2 years but this was the first year I put cameras in there and I ended up tagging out fairly early in November. Based on the cameras the middle of November was the best time. I’m gonna hit it hard that time next year and hope to get a crack at one of them. Although there are some that will score better there’s a side of my that really wants him I think he’s the bull of the woods.

[brancher147]

Yep. Gotta love those old mountain warriors no matter what they score... There were bigger racked bucks where I was hunting but I wanted the funky 6 point with kickers (one year he was a clean 8 even). He was the boss. I used to get him on a couple cameras over 3 miles apart on the same day! I had 2 encounters with him in 4 years. Once the last week of October and once middle of November. Don't overlook that last week of October if the sign is there and conditions are right, even if your cameras show mid November-just saying.

Here he was 2015, 16, 17

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[VaBowKill5]

That’s a really cool buck. I’m gonna get the cams in there in September this year and just move in when the pics start coming in. This spot I have to come in from the bottom of the south side of the mountain, pull to the top and walk out the top about a mile then drop off of the north side so it’s hard to get in there just to scout. I got the cuddle link system recently so I can check cams from the top of the mountain and I’m also planning to camp in there this year so I can hunt it multiple days in a row. I’m a mountain guru and my legs just can’t take it day in day out.