Lol, that's almost exactly what I said when Gunner asked how old I thought he was when we were looking at his teeth: "Either he's old - like 8-10 years old - or he's eaten a lot of gravel."
Sitting in the stand that evening I got to going over past bucks we had on the place that would have fit this one's description. Having owned the place about 11 years now, it seems that any time a "stranger" adult buck shows up, I can usually find him in my pictures from prior years, unless he's really nondescript. A buck I called "Elf" came to mind. Named mostly for his pointy ears, but also pretty diminutive, even for a 1.5 year old.
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He made a pretty good jump from 1.5 to 2.5, and I figured he had potential to be a good one, in spite of a narrow spread. These are the pictures that first led me to think that Gunner's buck is likely Elf. The antler configuration is pretty consistent from here forward - the right beam generally doesn't sweep as far outward before turning forward as does the left, and the right beam tip turns up noticeably while the left doesn't as much. G2's bases are well in front of where the beams turn forward. And an extra off the front of one of the bases. All of those are noticeable in Gunner's antlers from this year.
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But at 3.5 he didn't show up at all until very late - actually after the first of the year, and my thinking about his ultimate antler potential took a hit.
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First year he threw a kicker from a G2.
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4.5 years old. Late show again, and really poor pics, but same deer.
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Finally at 5.5 I got pics of him overnight between the first and second day of firearms season.
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Of course I was hunting for him at that point, but he disappeared, and I didn't get pictures of him at all after that. Being that the surrounding properties are heavily hunted, I assumed he was harvested in 2019 by someone else.
So if he did survive all this time, he would be 8.5 years old this fall. Which seems to line up with his teeth wear. I'll send his lone remaining middle incisor to get a lab age, but I'm pretty confident this is the same buck.
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So mostly I posted this thread to see if you guys' "on the hoof" guesses were similar to mine, or if I was missing something. Thanks for the input.
Assuming that it's the same buck - I would not have guessed that his antlers would be this much smaller at "only" 8 years old. But since he never really was a giant (at least before 6.5 or 7.5), I suppose it's not surprise. We can't all be Micah Parsons. As you said, Native, some mature bucks just aren't that big. According to chest girth measurement this one went about 205# live weight, and the boned out meat yield supports that.