Thought this was kinda interesting

[wtnhunt]

If this harvest data were accurate then the deer the wife killed by body weight and spread was likely a 5 1/2 year old, however he was only a 6 point and did not have the beam length or mass consistent with what is suggested. Figured my buck this year was a 3 1/2 year old, fits pretty close on weight and spread.

[TABLE=class: listTable]

[TR]

[TD=colspan: 9]** Bucks **[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR=class: listHead]

[TD=class: colhead]Age[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Number[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Percent[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Avg. Points[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Avg. Beam Circum[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Avg. Beam Length[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Avg. Outside Spread[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Avg. Live Weight[/TD]

[TD=class: colhead, width: 5%]Spikes[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]No Age[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]79170[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]Fawn[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]189[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]1 1/2[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]798[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]40.92[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]3.92[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]2.30[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]9.07[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]7.85[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]108.65[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]31.83[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]2 1/2[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]750[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]38.46[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]7.14[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]3.18[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]15.12[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]13.22[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]135.54[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]2.13[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]3 1/2[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]328[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]16.82[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]8.20[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]3.82[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]18.05[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]15.69[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]160.82[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.61[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]4 1/2[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]59[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]3.03[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]8.59[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]4.49[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]20.44[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]17.19[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]180.00[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: listdata]5 1/2[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]15[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.77[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]8.80[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]4.60[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]19.13[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]16.73[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]197.56[/TD]

[TD=class: listdata]0.00[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Other states putting out data like this? Does this seem consistent with what you would expect by age class where you hunt?

[wtnhunt]

Maybe noone can see the chart?

Guess by the sampling data they have given here that Tennessee deer do not improve a great deal after they reach 4.5 and genetically speaking 8 points are typical for mature deer.

Also noticed that still a higher percentage of 1.5 year olds being killed than any other age group and Tennessee maintains that the age structure of our deer are comparable to state's like Kentucky, scratch my head at where they come to that idea.

[PotashRLS]

Very interesting. I can tell you that one of my muzzleloader does from a couple weeks ago live weight was 152lbs. She dressed at 115lbs and her jaw bone looked to be 3 1/2. My buddy's 3 1/2 year old 9pt buck shot on 11/17 live weight was 215lbs. He dressed at 168lbs.

When our deer population goes up, the health and body weights go down. People just can't get that aspect of management through their feeble minds.

[dbHunterNY]

yea but not everything works with averages.... like what was the standard deviation, range, and other data? you'd be surprised how much those characteristics overlap between the age groups.

not really related to the type of quantitative data you posted but...... the last report my state put out i took their qualitative findings like toilet paper. lol then i know for a fact some stuff management stuff around here doesn't happen for politcal reasons. i can't imagine report findings are uneffected when everything else is.

[Ethan Givan]

The weights seem a little on the light side, Id say they are closer to field dressed weights for the deer here.

Dont think you can really read into this data too much. There is just too much variation in physical features of deer to use averages to represent the data. There will be alot of outliers that skew the results.

[hoosierhunter]

Thought this was kinda interesting

I think the mass is close from 3 to 4. An average Indiana 3 yr old will dress at 170 and a 4 yr old at 200 in late Oct. main beam length seems to be 21-22 3 yr old. 22-23 4 yr old. Spread has too much variable.

[wtnhunt]

The weights seem a little on the light side, Id say they are closer to field dressed weights for the deer here.

Dont think you can really read into this data too much. There is just too much variation in physical features of deer to use averages to represent the data. There will be alot of outliers that skew the results.

Don't see too many 200+lb on the hoof deer around here, a 3.5 year old here is usually not going to go over 140 dressed weight. Figured the weights average may be within reason for this area, however I agree that there will be deviations. Really mostly looking at the differences in age classes, the data could be somewhat of use in reinforcing what is a decent deer for this area.

Going to pull up data from a few years past and see how if at all consistent it is from year to year.

I think the mass is close from 3 to 4. An average Indiana 3 yr old will dress at 170 and a 4 yr old at 200 in late Oct. main beam length seems to be 21-22 3 yr old. 22-23 4 yr old. Spread has too much variable.

Agree on spread for sure. Had a run of wide ones 17+ inches inside we were getting trail cam pics of here for a few years, one of those I figured to be a really big 2.5 year old or more likely 3.5 year old based on body shape. I passed that deer during our rifle season after I had already killed one that we thought was a 4.5 year old.

[abrown]

I talked to a hunter from Tennesee, he was telling me the same thing, that the bucks are small. I think and will still say, people cry out about genetics when the main problem is the age of harvest. Look at the states that have big deer, they have a one buck limit, makes that gun totten redneck think twice about shooting a spike if he knows that'll be the end of his hunting, also with QDMA your just managing numbers not quality, with trophy management you can do both, but ones more intensive. Here in OK their trying to combine our ML and Rifle bucks to just one, which is awesome. BTW, when I pulled jaw bones for our wildlife department, the majority of the BIG bucks didn't get their jaw bone pulled because they where scared of it messing up the mount, so we didn't usually get anything over an 8 pointer.

Edited December 19, 2012 by abrown