Your "Bob Ross Memorial": Whiteboard pic of the month

Here is your November themed whiteboard pic o’ the month. Yes, maybe a turkey would have been a little more appropriate, but we’ve already done that. My apologies to faithful reader Rusty as he had suggested a Caribou, that may come next month instead. So in honor of deer season and the buck that I won’t be shooting this year here is a “Whiteboard Whitetail”.

Now the question – how old do you think this buck is? I actually took this from the ND Game and Fish calendar (with some rack embellishment). Here is the actual pic from the calendar.

Most people looking at him would assume, big rack, must be 6 or 7 years old. A few key features lead me to believe he’s not quite that old. He doesn’t have that ‘racehorse’ body of a 3 ½ year old, he’s lost a little muscle tone in the front shoulders. He does have the gentle slope to his back, indicative of a 5 ½ year old, but the eyes are still fairly well rounded and the chest line is even with the belly line, not sagging. The final clue is the legs, they don’t have the ‘too long’ look of a young buck or the ‘too short’ look of an old buck. This is a 4 ½ year old buck.

The hunting shows would tell you that he’s maybe a year away from his prime. Skeet will tell you to empty your gun and possibly wreck a truck over him.