125py

Yesterday I had a 2.5 yr old 115-120" 8pt walk by at 15 yards, and I noticed that his tarsal glands were bright white and not stained at all.I know that all bucks are individuals and that every once in a while you will find a buck that just simply is not that interested in breeding does. Have you guys ever seen this?

IAhuntr

Many of the 1-2 y/o don't rub/urinate in their scrapes or community scrapes. That doesn't mean they don't breed if given a chance, just that they haven't caught on to the whole process yet. During or after the rut that is one way to tell if you have shot a truly mature deer. The 2-3 y/o's will have light to moderately stained tarsals while the 5+ year old bucks will have their tarsals matted with stinky black goowith streaks down their lower legsthat is offensive to the nose.[:'(] You can smell a mature buck when you first walk up on him. I've seen the young deer with varying degrees of staining. Not sure if the buck to doe ratio in the herd has anything to do with it or not.

Muzzlearcher

That's funny......I shot a 6pt buck on Nov 15th that was as white as could be too. My brother and I couldn't believe he didn't have a smell either. I assume mine was 1.5yr. Nor was his neck swollen. I just figured he wasn't pretty enough for the ladies........