Did I mess up passing on these bucks?

NPHunter · Nov 4, 2023

Passed on all these bucks on a recent muzzle loader hunt. Was after a mature deer and none of these came across as an older deer to me. The taller 3 point was breading does and I’m sure the wide buck was as well. I can draw the tag every year but honestly I don’t think I would have been happy with any of those bucks. I still have an ID hunt this year, looking back through the pics a couple look better than I thought they did in person.

Maybe I just have to high of hopes on public ground but I always just tell myself if I don’t shoot them they will be bigger next year. I’d imagine most of them bucks will be decent bucks in another year. This is a tag I can get every year.

Buck 1, I figured he was only 3.5 maybe a 150” buck.

Buck 2, tall 3, watched him bread does. 3.5yr possible 4.5yrs old. He was big bodied but just didn’t strike me as an old buck.

Buck #3 3x4 looked real young and spindly.

Buck #4 my hunting partner ended up killing this buck.

Sparks Shooter · Nov 4, 2023

The big 3 looks older to me. Out of all these bucks I would have shot him. ——SS

yoteduster · Nov 4, 2023

They should be pretty good bucks next year..if you're hunting for trophy class deer you did right on passing on them

antlerradar · Nov 5, 2023

Passing on a buck is a personal choice. If you have to ask us if you made a mistake you probably should have been shooting. I passed on a great buck, most hunters would call me crazy, but I don't care. Personal choice.

Pre-64 · Nov 5, 2023

If you have to think about shooting one, then don’t. I’ve not shot a buck in years, not because i couldn’t just because I’m looking for a true trophy class buck. i video them and consider that a “kill” if I wanted to take them I could. Tag a 150 you can’t tag a 180 later that year.

Soj51hopeful · Nov 5, 2023

If you wouldn’t have been happy with any of them then no, you didn’t mess up by passing them.

jims · Nov 5, 2023

I agree with antlerradar that passing up bucks is a personal choice. It looks like you passed up a number of decent bucks so you were holding out for something special.

It sounds like you hunt this unit just about every year and may have possibly shot many bucks similar to those over the years? You likely knew from past experience what is available in your unit and wanted something special.

Personally, I've passed up a gob of really big, mature 3x bucks in my life. I just don't get excited about them. I've given Wyo residents a hard time about Wyo having poor genetics with so many 3x bucks in high demand limited units that often take years to draw. It's obvious to me that 3x's are passed and that the few 4x4 framed bucks that exist are getting clobbered.

I really believe this is a sign of horrible genetics but others may disagree. I doubt if any of the 3x bucks in your photos will ever produce 4x4 frames regardless of how many years they live. They will likely have bigger bodies and possibly a little more mass but looking through your photos it looks like poor genetics in that particular herd.

Colo is a prime example of a state with very few 3x framed bucks. Colo has fantastic genetics for 4x4 framed bucks. Even younger bucks tend to have 4x4 frames. With that said, one way to get rid of the "bad genetics" is to harvest 3x bucks and allow 4x4's to age. I would say that if you, your buddy, and every buddy you know that hunts that unit shoot 3'xs every year and pass up bucks with 4x4 frames you would be helping out that particular herd's genetics.

With all of that said, I PERSONALLY would have no problem passing up any of those bucks. I'm not really a meat hunter and would rather go home empty than shoot a 3x buck. It appears that mature 4x4's in your particular unit are pretty tough to come by. You actually would do your unit a favor shooting older, dominate 3xs that are breeding does than shooting the few bucks that exist with larger 4x4 frames. Pass along the word to your buddies to shoot the mature 3x and allow the 4x to live!

nripepi · Nov 5, 2023

Buck 2 is older for sure. That would have been the one to shoot of the 3. Depends on the tag in your pocket. Looks like a fun hunt!

Paul_Crawford · Nov 5, 2023

BAM! pc

muleybeast · Nov 5, 2023

Jim’s has a great take on it. I second that.

Tristate · Nov 5, 2023

Passing any buck has never been a mess up.

338BUCKNBULL · Nov 5, 2023

Nothing wrong with passing them up. We have many years to go for herd recovery.

NPHunter · Nov 5, 2023

jims said:
I agree with antlerradar that passing up bucks is a personal choice. It looks like you passed up a number of decent bucks so you were holding out for something special.

It sounds like you hunt this unit just about every year and may have possibly shot many bucks similar to those over the years? You likely knew from past experience what is available in your unit and wanted something special.

Personally, I've passed up a gob of really big, mature 3x bucks in my life. I just don't get excited about them. I've given Wyo residents a hard time about Wyo having poor genetics with so many 3x bucks in high demand limited units that often take years to draw. It's obvious to me that 3x's are passed and that the few 4x4 framed bucks that exist are getting clobbered.

I really believe this is a sign of horrible genetics but others may disagree. I doubt if any of the 3x bucks in your photos will ever produce 4x4 frames regardless of how many years they live. They will likely have bigger bodies and possibly a little more mass but looking through your photos it looks like poor genetics in that particular herd.

Colo is a prime example of a state with very few 3x framed bucks. Colo has fantastic genetics for 4x4 framed bucks. Even younger bucks tend to have 4x4 frames. With that said, one way to get rid of the "bad genetics" is to harvest 3x bucks and allow 4x4's to age. I would say that if you, your buddy, and every buddy you know that hunts that unit shoot 3'xs every year and pass up bucks with 4x4 frames you would be helping out that particular herd's genetics.

With all of that said, I PERSONALLY would have no problem passing up any of those bucks. I'm not really a meat hunter and would rather go home empty than shoot a 3x buck. It appears that mature 4x4's in your particular unit are pretty tough to come by. You actually would do your unit a favor shooting older, dominate 3xs that are breeding does than shooting the few bucks that exist with larger 4x4 frames. Pass along the word to your buddies to shoot the mature 3x and allow the 4x to live!

I defiantly don’t need the meat, there are 4 of us hunting in my house and we’ve already killed a couple nice bucks this fall. I still have an Idaho tag that starts next weekend and my kid still has a late whitetail tag as well.

I don’t mind big 3’s but if I’m going to shoot a 3 I want it to be a slob. There are defiantly some 4 points around as well but fewer for sure.

This was the first time we’ve ever hunted the area and won’t be hunting it for a couple more years. It doesn’t really see winter kill so with any luck there will be some good ones in a couple years. Next time we will go deeper for sure.

The ag below where we were hunting had some really big bucks which all came off of public ground which let us know there are defiantly older deer in the area. I think maybe some of the bigger bucks had moved down to the private with the does. We didn’t see much at all for the first 3 miles into public but tons of fresh sign. Pretty sure we will set up cam at about 5 miles next time and hunt the more remote stuff. On a positive note we saw zero other hunters in the pack in spot in 4 days and nights. There were defiantly folks driving back and forth on the roads by the ag ground.

schoolhousegrizz · Nov 5, 2023

I guess it depends on what you're after. From what I've learned on my post directly under this, most of those bucks were probably 3 years olds. Maybe the one a little older. If you are after 170 plus I think you did the right thing.

Betterluckythangood · Nov 5, 2023

Buck #2 looks four years old to me. I agree the genes don’t look good. The problem I think is they never seem to be around the next year and reach the next level. I’ve observed this many times. “That one will be a dandy next year”

NPHunter · Nov 5, 2023

Betterluckythangood said:
Buck #2 looks four years old to me. I agree the genes don’t look good. The problem I think is they never seem to be around the next year and reach the next level. I’ve observed this many times. “That one will be a dandy next year”

I agree, I went back and forth on the buck, I was thinking 3.5 but after looking at some others we decided he was probably 4.5.

This area gets very little pressure and we were the last hunters for the year. If they can avoid the cats they should make it another year for sure. The biggest issue with the area besides low deer density’s is lack of water, we found ones small spring 1.5miles from camp. We had to pack our water with us each time we past it and the next possible spring is 5 miles in, that’s where we plan to setup camp next time we hunt there.

Uttaxi1 · Nov 5, 2023

I think #2 is a age class past the other 2. I am a age guy ahead of score or antler configuration. I probably would have attempted a shot. Looks like you had a fun time and plan going forward.

roadrunner · Nov 5, 2023

If I were asking that question, the answer would be yes.

NPHunter · Nov 5, 2023

roadrunner said:
If I were asking that question, the answer would be yes.

I guess I’m more wondering about did I miss judge the age of these bucks. I looked at all of them for a couple of days and passed them. I do not regret not shooting them as I was after an older age class buck and don’t believe any of these met that criteria.
The only one I believe I was off on was the big 3, saw him in day 3 and 4 and thought 3.5, after looking at more bucks and looking back through pics I think he was probably older than the others. (4.5) Still not an old mature buck but older than the others.

I was just curious if others that are better than me at judging mule deer agree or disagree on the age. The one wide 4 point was the biggest buck for sure but after a lot of looking at him I just couldn’t get excited about killing him. Maybe he just had poor genetics but he came across as a younger deer to me.

Maybe the older bucks were still hiding since it was 20-25th of Oct. but there were does being bred and I don’t know what to think about that. The buck to doe ratio was very high.

antlerradar · Nov 5, 2023

Pre-64 said:
If you have to think about shooting one, then don’t. I’ve not shot a buck in years, not because i couldn’t just because I’m looking for a true trophy class buck. i video them and consider that a “kill” if I wanted to take them I could. Tag a 150 you can’t tag a 180 later that year.

Or that 150 may turn into that 180 you are looking for in a year or two.

roadrunner · Nov 5, 2023

NPHunter said:
I guess I’m more wondering about did I miss judge the age of these bucks. I looked at all of them for a couple of days and passed them. I do not regret not shooting them as I was after an older age class buck and don’t believe any of these met that criteria.
The only one I believe I was off on was the big 3, saw him in day 3 and 4 and thought 3.5, after looking at more bucks and looking back through pics I think he was probably older than the others. (4.5) Still not an old mature buck but older than the others.

I was just curious if others that are better than me at judging mule deer agree or disagree on the age. The one wide 4 point was the biggest buck for sure but after a lot of looking at him I just couldn’t get excited about killing him. Maybe he just had poor genetics but he came across as a younger deer to me.

Maybe the older bucks were still hiding since it was 20-25th of Oct. but there were does being bred and I don’t know what to think about that. The buck to doe ratio was very high.

Mature and "older" are two different things. All old deer are mature, but not all mature deer are old...

BrowningRage · Nov 5, 2023

If you see bucks like this on the regular in a unit you can draw every year... You did just fine passing. By comparison, many guys pass 2 points because they see them every year, its not as challenging and they are common. Your area has the next level buck that is common. Don't feel bad passing.

Buckfever34 · Nov 5, 2023

Public ground and DIY I’d went back to buck two after I looked around and was confident I wasn’t going to turn anything else up. If you saw him breeding does he was as mature as you were going to find in the area, IMO. The hope would’ve been a 4 point would have found his does after you turned his lights out. Overall, looks like some poor genetics probably from everyone shooting young 4 points “just cause” they’re 4 points, which I think is kinda silly.

All this is coming from someone that lives 15 hours away from the closest mule deer so my opinion is probably somewhat skewed—lol. But, I don’t take the time off work and drive out West to eat tags. I have no problem passing up a buck with good genetics that needs more time and smoking a “management” type of buck, though.

Case in point—I passed on a few decent 4 points on both of these hunts:

Founder · Nov 5, 2023

Nothing wrong with passing on a buck or bull if you’re not excited about taking them.

I’ve been spoiled in my hunting and now hardly get excited about 180 bucks. I’ve taken and looked at so many them. It’s another step up where my real excitement begins. For me, if a buck doesn’t get me all excited when I see it, then that tells me I shouldn’t shoot.

You got some good photos and you know you could’ve taken them had you wanted. That’s enough to take home and be content with.

Ranger1 · Nov 6, 2023

If you had a great time watching the bucks, then took home some meat there is no problem spending more time by passing on the bucks instead. Option is being done right away of course everyone wants that once in a lifetime wall hanger so passing up is just fine. Have fun and dream about the next hunt!