Age Over Antlers?

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “age over antlers” when hunters talk about their decision making as far as what deer they want to wrap their tag around. It’s usually in the context of deciding to shoot a crusty old short-tined low scoring bully buck over a better scoring deer with higher potential to become a mega giant later in life. This Fall, I have the unique opportunity to take “age over antlers” to a new level with a very old deer. This deer has a body like a freight train and wits above every other deer in the herd, but there is one small problem: it’s a doe. You are probably thinking: so what? Schwack her and then focus on buck hunting. Only issue with that is I hunt in an area where we are only allowed to harvest one deer all year.    

I’ve been running trail cams the majority of my adult life and now that I’m getting a few grey hairs, antler pursuit has become less of a priority for me than it did previously. I may find a giant buck to chase soon, but for now, my prospects are simply that; prospects. I have a bunch of good-looking deer on camera that are next-year bucks. I want to chase the wisest deer in the woods and this year that happens to be an old nanny with a bunch of scratches on her back and a jaw that isn’t fully aligned. I call her “Big Dipper” because she often looks like she has a wad a chew in her lip. She seems to have a sweet tooth for any CRUSH® granular I put on the ground.  

Here she is way back in 2020 when she was already a mature doe:

2020 was the first year I was on this farm and she was there from the get-go. I’m not sure what happened to her to get the tell-tale scratches on her back and have a mis-aligned jaw, but I suspect a vehicle was involved.

Here she is in 2021:

By the next year, I started taking notice of her home range and she stays in a relatively small area.  

Here she with her fawn in 2022:

I could tell who she was more than any other deer on the farm because of the hair difference on her back and her signature tongue doing weird things.  

This is her from 2023:

I kept tabs on her and again she kept to a small area. She was always one of the first deer I noticed go from the reddish summer coat to the grey winter coat.

Her back looks like it’s healing a bit with every passing year, but scars remain.  

Here she is in 2024:

Now to this year - She is as big as she has ever been, and I routinely had her pic with multiple fawns. This pic has 3 fawns in it, but I can’t be certain they are all hers. Regardless, even after raising multiple fawns the last few years, she still looks like she’s pregnant year-round because her massive belly sags so much.

Here is this year’s pic:

Six straight years of trail cam pics and there is no doubt she is the oldest and wisest deer I could go after this Fall. Where I live there are not a lot of places deer can hide, so her lack of antlers certainly has saved her multiple times.  Would you ever consider burning your only tag on a wise old snorting nan’ like this? Or would you stick to the convention that you aren’t a very good hunter if you don’t bring home some antlers every year? I know what I’m doing if I get a chance at her…Thwack!