Took the hairy kids for the usual walk but up a new draw and found this dandy buck, unfortunately the idiots charged up over the top of the knob and spooked them out of the gulch to the top of the next ridge making me use more magnification than I wanted to. Not many deducts here, he's almost perfect.
This one was chasing his girls all over the hillside.
But are you losing any weight Yellum?? My dogs are if we aren't walking by 2pm they're bouncing off the walls.
I also thought the old grey faced baldy was an early dropped buck but at 60x without the camera (the camera adds glass between you and the deer making it substantially more blurry than the scope alone). I could not see hairless pedicles or scabs/blood. They don't shed here till mid-late feb so I doubt it but you never know unless they let you pet them.
One thing for sure he/she looks ancient compared to that buck who is no slouch.
LAST EDITED ON Jan-16-10 AT 10:26AM (MST)[p]looked like a buck to me too, the deer around here dont usually drop untill Feb ether but there is always a few early dropers I went out a week ago and saw a buck that had droped both sides.
The white face is what gives it away to me does wont usually have that white of a face.
Also was there any other does in the group, in your last pics those where all bucks. You dont usually see one doe running with a bunch of bucks.
There was a mixed group,sex wise, they were milling about watching me and the dogs from a safe vantage point. Of course I zero'd in on the bucks and tried to frame the pics as such. I'ld have a better idea if I could have observed them at rest as they fed and interacted with each other in an undisturbed state. Some of our does around here do get mighty grey as they don't get shot much. I should leave the hairy idiots behind but they have so much fun looking for bunnies and sage grouse. Besides my wife won't yell at me for being a slacker as long as it's "for the children".
Here is a great shot, look at the hairline of the doe, there should be a disheveled rumpled look instead it is nice and round and symetrical-I'm saying doe on this one, but I had to look long and hard and may be wrong. The face is impressively grey, wonder how many teeth she has left??
