Oldest whitetail

[laker]

I knew this one was fairly old but had no idea he was 13 years old. A client arrowed him one year after many seasons of trying. Quite the story on the retrieval. Long story short, the deer met his demise moments before we found him. A large black bear had caught up to him and from what we could tell a fight ensued and he killed him. While trailing the blood trail early the next morning we spooked the bear off the buck. He was partially buried by leaves and dirt as he probably had heard us closing in on him. This was how he was laying when we found him.

The taxidermist said there were 62 teeth holes in the cape mostly in the back of the neck and skull. The incisor was sent off and confirmed at 13 years of age. The buck was quite small and the large framed rack was quite light in the hands and gross scored 192 nontypical. He had grown the droptine for many years with this one being the longest at 14”. I haven’t heard of any Alberta Whitetails reaching this age before. A true survivor to the end. And going to a great guy that put in endless hours trying to outwit him.

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[58thecat]

Wow that’s a gooder!


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[Fwee6]

Cool story, thanks for sharing.

That club is incredible.

[Federal]

Amazing story, what a brute! Thank you for sharing.

[Phil McCracken]

This smart whitetail eluded hunters/predators for 13 years. Quite the feat.

Made an easy prey for that bear due to his diminished capacities.

Thanx for sharing...

[Sooner]

That's a cool story, what a mount that would be with all those bite marks in the cape. Super nice buck too for that age.


Many years ago I shot a old, big bodied MD Buck NE of Stettler. He reduced down to a almost typical WT frame. He would have had one heck of a rack in his prime. He had 1 front tooth left, it was half worn down to a point. I heard about a study going on so I called around and found out the U of A was doing some teeth aging for another project. Got ahold of the guy running it and he said I could mail in the lower jaw portion and even though it was not for their study, he would have a student age it and let me know.


Never heard back and this was before the internet so no pic of the tooth. I always wondered how old that buck was.

[Curtsyneil]

Well In the wild they will live up to 10 years old but like any animal I’m sure they can live even longer.

[laker]

A side note to the story. After we had quartered him up and started our pack out we noticed the bear coming back. We huddled in behind a few willows and watched the bear go at the carcass for a while. We were only about 15 yds away at the time and it was a pretty intense few moments before we decided to slip outta there.

[MooseRiverTrapper]

Very interesting. I think some deer get older then we think.

[marky_mark]

And you shot the bear too?

[Hair trigger]

That is awesome thanks for sharing

HT

[KBF]

192” 13yr old deer. Can’t imagine him in his prime!

[Pekan]

That's a hell of an old buck.

Did you send the tooth to that company in Montana that ages them?

My whitetail this year had some very worn down molars and I saved the front teeth for aging. I'm going to wait until I go down to Montana next and mail it for aging. I guess you can't mail deer parts across the border.

[laker]

Originally Posted by Pekan

That's a hell of an old buck.

Did you send the tooth to that company in Montana that ages them?

My whitetail this year had some very worn down molars and I saved the front teeth for aging. I'm going to wait until I go down to Montana next and mail it for aging. I guess you can't mail deer parts across the border.

The head went south of the border. Not sure where he sent the incisor off too. I recall he heard back relatively quick with the results.