Thread: Judging Stag potential.

@bigbear has put forward some good points on aging a stag.. i’m not expert by any stretch and have only shot a small handful of old stags but something outside the points already mentioned.. just as far as age goes.

I also look for a big low hanging stomach and look at the animals gait. Young stags tend to carry most of their weight in their back end relative to their shoulder mass and walk with what appears to be a lighter step, carrying their head quite high. Older stags tend to look like a lot of their weight is carried in the front half. This usually expresses itself in the way they walk also, older stags tend to almost shamble along and carry their head not too far from the line of their backbone.

Of course looking for these things assumes you have time on your side. I reckon @JoshC is on the money, probably not going to get any better, and looks like he’ll be a good eater!