Old bucks easier to kill after 6+ years old?

[Bowhunter4life]

Not sure if I've ever taken a deer of this age. I know some 4-5 year olds that I've killed but I'm not certain on a 6+. I can't make any sense of a deer of that age being any easier to kill or at least not on this land I hunt. The amount of rifle hunters around here is very high and with that many people stumbling through the wood, a deer living on or near public to reach the age of 6 is not a easy deer to kill. Big managed property where you have watched the deer each season letting him grow and not pressuring him is a different animal entirely IMO. Now the buck on public may have that little over looked area that he uses and rarely leaves outside of darkness vs a buck that uses a small home range on private land so they both have shrunk their core area, in those sense they are alike maybe. I can't speak from experience on this one. Depends on how you look at this one I guess.

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[Aaron1987]

I've spent alot of time on Winke's farm in the last 5 years. I think Stan is exactly right.

The old bucks on Bill's farm gravitate towards the center of his property as they get older (where nobody ever goes). [glow=red]Like Dan is always saying-mature bucks live where they don't see people[/glow] and they certainly don't in the middle of his farm. There is probably 300 acres of nasty TSI timber that holds these bucks right in the center and is surrounded by their choice of food so they have no reason to leave. We shed hunt it once a year and that's the only human intrusion that chunk will see.

I think we can certainly learn from the old bucks we watch on his property but by no means is that reality for most situations. A buck that grows up to be 6+ years old on a managed property is conditioned to the lack of pressure-hence more daylight activity. IMO that's why they get complacent in their old age on HIS property.

A buck that has lived to 6 or 7 years old on public land is a hardened veteran when it comes to evading hunters or he wouldn't be alive.

[Dewey]

Bump

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[headgear]

It is hard for me to imagine an old public or pressured buck getting sloppy and get killed, they seem more likely to sleepwalk through bow and rifle season like they have done it a 100 times.

[TNstalker]

I agree with Aaron. I've never had that privilege on any farm I hunt but a buddy of mine family just sold their farm he was the only one to hunt it. He would have 5-7 mature bucks every year on cam in daylight. He had a couple of small set aside places that where nasty he wouldn't hunt an that's where they stayed. He has killed some old deer there not always the slob he could if he would be a little more aggressive but he didn't want to blow them out. He is young 21 has quite a few old nice bucks biggest being 147. An they would travel a lot more before rut during daylight in places u wouldn't expect to see them in. So I do believe the less pressure over time they do get a little lazy. Not saying they throw caution to the wind but they do things they normally wouldn't on other places. The farm was almost 700 ac he hunted a lot still didn't affect the bucks that much or at least that's the way it seemed to me.

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[Hatchetman]

My experience with a confirmed 6.5 yro is only once and it may have only been 5.5 IDK.?

In 2001 I had laid eyes on a good, what I thought to be a 4.5 11pt. about in the 140s. on my little piece of private "pass thru" property I hunt.
I didn't get a shot on my first encounter but had him come through with a doe during the rut and I rushed my shot and hit him high. Perfect left and right just stuck it right in his spine.
For whatever reason, I didn't faze him in the least, he just bounded up and over the hill . At that time I was shooting almost 70 lbs. so I have no idea why the impact didn't at least knock him down, Even momentarily??

Fast forward 2002.... Never saw him.

2003, He's back. At least I thought it was him. Same forked G-2s
I saw this buck 5 times before I killed him on the sixth.
In this bucks case, it surely seemed he let his guard down, moving often and well before dark.
Seeing this buck this many times was an extreme rarity for me as most times I get one look at mature buck and if I don't get him, I never see him again. It's just the way it seems to work in my area.

I killed that buck on the day before Halloween. I was sitting a creek crossing pinch that was between a spring and small cattail marsh. This stand was about 60 yds. in the woods from a combined corn field.
A good hr before dark the buck shows up out in the corn field just feeding and looking around. Luckily it was really quiet so I tried a few doe balls with a primos can. I got his attention and he started to come. The distance to the field edge he covered fairly quickly. At the field edge he stopped and just surveyed. Being no wind he was cautious, a few steps -stop over and over. It took him a very long time to cover that 50 or so yards to where I finally shot him.

The tines were shorter on him now than he was 2 yrs. prior, but he was thicker and his main beams were a little longer. grossed 146. (which is my biggest Wi buck) weighed only 168 which I thought was low for that old of a deer at that time of year.

When I butchered, I did find my broadhead lodged in his spine right where I thought it would be so it definitely was him.

I came to this conclusion with what I saw that fall.
First off, I hunted quite a bit on that property till I killed him. Other than 1 small 1.5 buck, he was all I saw. He was everywhere. He probably was, or at least thought he was, the big dude in that area. I would think he would of got his but kicked by a prime 4.5 but I don't think any where around.
I also will say, other than the night I killed him, he sure didn't act like other big bucks I encountered, meaning a lot less stand-stop -watch type thing, he'd walk quite a ways in between stops and didn't seem to stop for long either.

I think the stars kinda have to align so to speak for this complacency of a big buck to take place.

First, a light pressured area would be a must.
For it to happen on pressured public would really be rare,I would think.

Second, Your age structure and general lack of presence of contending bucks would be the other major contributing factor.

I don't claim to know it all, it's just what I concluded with my one time experience with a buck like this.

[Jonny]

I think there are way too many variables to give a right answer. Like aaron said, those bucks sit in the middle of the farm where there is zero pressure, so those older deer feel comfortable getting up and about in a smaller range. In SE wisconsin or other areas with high pressure public, those deer never feel safe until it dark out, so those deer will be harder to kill. It all depends on the deer you hunt, the pressure they see, the type of land you hunt (thick vs open areas) and other numerous variables. I do think older deer are like older people, they do become more predictable. But who knows what is going on in their head. There are some old people I know who forget what they had for breakfast 20 minutes ago, and others who notice a tiny paint chip on their car. Deer theoretically should be the same, some pay attention to the smallest details and die of old age, and others that are naturally oblivious to those details because they never needed to notice them and are easier to kill.

[JakeD]

I've had the opportunity to hunt 6.5+ year old bucks on more that one occasion. This is on private ground where my wife and I are the main 2 bowhunters. It is approximately 600ish acres. From what I see, these bucks get easier to hunt when they reach that age for a couple of reasons.

1. I have a lot of pictures of them through the years and have a good idea where they bed and feed.

2. Their core area shrinks and they wander off much less.

3. They have little pressure on them and I feel like they become complacent. There may be something else going on, but they seem to move much more in daylight once they hit this age.

I am by no means a professional, and I haven't killed all of these bucks. I've killed a couple of them, and the other ones got rifle killed by my in laws. One of them that got rifle killed was a 7.5 year old 7 pointer that I hunted for a couple of years and had only one chance at. I didn't make good on that chance. Anyways, that's just the observations that I've accumulated through the last several years. It doesn't mean that it will be like that everywhere, especially on public.