I saw that buck while hunting in 2017 and passed him because I thought he we 3.5 at the time. I hadn't had any photos of him prior to seeing him so I was going off of what I observed at the time and gut instinct. When I got photo of #2 of him it looked like he had swollen up more after I saw him. I think he looks 4.5 in that photo and 5.5 in pic 13 the following year but he is one of the more difficult to age bucks for which I've had multiple years of photos. I think I had photos of him once in 2019 but he hadn't grown much from 2018.
He was definitely the dominant buck still in 2019 and for many of the three prior years. I rarely had another photo of a mature buck show up on my cams whenever he was around. He looks a little more sway backed in that photo because he just finished thrashing the licking branch over his head. His rack never really changed much over the first 4 years of photos, he had a fork of varying size on his left G2 some years and developed a bunch of stickers around his bases in 2018 and 2019 but was always a heavy main frame 8 with short G3s.16 you can see his hip drop off and the hump created from his spine. He’s the kind that comes walking to a fight and needs a walker for assistance because his legs are all stiffed out and he’s about to fall down
