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More on How to Judge Big Bucks’ Antlers with Your Alpen Binoculars
 Editor’s Note: Today, the concept of trophy-deer management or quality-deer management is learned from how deer are managed in Texas. To raise trophy deer like Texans do on the land you hunt, you’ll need a lot of money, plenty of land and numbers of trophy deer. You also need quality binoculars like your Alpen ones to determine which bucks your can take at a place with prescription deer hunting.
At Duval County Ranch the ranch manager and the guides have seen so many bucks, they’ve become very skilled at looking at bucks and determining not only the Boone & Crockett (B&C) score, but also the deer’s age.
 According to Douglas Kubetka, a guide there, “The first thing you look at when trying to determine the deer’s age is the deer’s body. Is it block-shaped or long? A block-shaped deer will be older than a long deer. An older deer’s neck will be joined to its body right at the brisket. On a young deer, you can definitely see its neck. An older deer’s head looks like it comes out of his shoulders with very little neck. A young buck’s hind legs are long and spindly, resembling a race horse. A young buck will probably be less than 4-1/2-years old. If all four legs look like they’re about the same size, you can assume you’re looking at a 4-1/2-year old or older buck.
“If you look at the deer’s eyes, and they appear elongated or slant-eyed, then you’re looking at a 4-1/2-year-old-or-older buck. A younger buck will appear to have more-rounded eyes. The hardest age to really pin down is a 4-1/2- or a 5-1/2-year-old buck because bucks look very similar at that age. You usually can tell the difference between a buck less than 4-1/2-years old or a buck over 5-1/2-years old, because older deer have a pot gut and somewhat of a swayed back. Also, older bucks don’t look as streamlined as 1-1/2- and 2-1/2-year old bucks do.
 Besides feeding minerals and corn to our deer, our soil has a lot of calcium and minerals in it, which is why we can grow so many deer with big antlers here. We keep the population down by harvesting does and taking a certain number of management deer every year. Also, we mow cinderos, a wide strip of mowed land that looks much like a power line right-of-way. To age deer correctly, you have to be able to see and study the deer. If a buck is in the grass, many times you can’t see all the key factors required for aging that deer correctly.” So, if you’re hunting on land with prescription hunting, use your Alpen binoculars to analyze a buck before you harvest him.
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