Age this deer!

[jnorm1984]

A lot of people have been throwing these out it seems this season. So I thought I would put up one of my own- How old is he?

[MUSKY18]

My thoughts are probably 5.5 year old deer

[bottom-bouncer]

I would also say 5.5 could be pushing6.5

[96trigger]

I think younger, I am going to say 3.5 to 4.5. Body shape is telling me one thing, but rack is telling me another. Put the two together and I think its a mature buck, but he still has some growing left.

[CrewJones]

he has a fairly pointy nose, and his rack just doesn't have tons of mass, doesn't even look out side the ears. His body makes me thing he's real old maybes he's too old for big antlers

[Bear55]

Hmmm this is a hard one for me, the body might appear to be an very old deer potentially past his prime. But his face/nose just seems a little short and stubby like a 3.5 or 4.5 year old.

I am almost ready to give up attempting to age deer, I think we can do an ok job but I would guess we are wrong more than we think. I remember reading an Alsheimer article a few years back, he had a bunch of deer biologists over to his enclosed study area and had them age a bunch of the bucks he was studying. Now some of these bucks were very old which made them difficult to age but I do remember the deer biologists did a very poor job of guessing their ages. The average hunters probably has far less of a chance.

[slimngrizzly]

I will also say 3.5 or maaaybe 4.5. Hes filling out nice for the rut but doesnt look that "big" overall. This deer looks to me to be about a 130. Nice buck!

[mabr]

THAT deer is old. 5.5 - 6.5 or older. Look at the sagging skin in the brisket. Id say he is about past prime.

[sticknstring]

Unless he's on steroids, looks to be 6+. That's a mature deer, regardless of rack size.

[JBone]

5 to 6 for sure

[Musky Buck]

3.5

[jnorm1984]

Just for reference for the deer in our area. Look at the body on this guy, compared to the other. This one was taken by our neighbor, he sent in the tooth and it came back to be 8.5 yrs.

[slimngrizzly]

Thats a dandy! That buck on 9/26 will change a lot over two weeks in body and neck size/ appearance. It looks mature, I wouldn't doubt its 8 1/2, lots of charachter showing!

I dont beliave anyone could tell by a trailcam picture if a buck is 5 1/2 or 7 1/2 or 9 1/2 or whatever. Once a buck gets to about 5 years old it just doesn't change that much.

[JBone]

sweet buck! See I would guess 3.5 to 4 on that one

[Musky Buck]

3.5 year old. I think it takes more than 1 tooth to age a deer or why did the experts in Madelia,MN want the jaw, I could've plucked a tooth much easier and saved on postage. 8.5 really now. That then is the oldest MN deer I've ever heard of, did you lock him up in a barn until his 8th bday ? Just kidding but I've seen more times than not aging them as older than they really are more so than younger. Good luck hope you get him and send a sample in for aging.

[bigbucks]

I think he's a minimum of 4.5, probably 5.5 or 6.5. Some deer just don't ever grow great racks, he may be one of them.

[slimngrizzly]

Quote:

I think it takes more than 1 tooth to age a deer or why did the experts in Madelia,MN want the jaw, I could've plucked a tooth much easier and saved on postage

The jaw is used to judge age by tooth wear.... which is really just an educated guess. A single tooth can be used in a cross section to determine exact years of growth, SO THEY SAY. Im personally not confident in the accuracy of either technique. I have personally seen both fail.

[certified jumbo]

by all means you cannnot tell the age based soley on the size of the antlers. just because a deer has a 130 inch rack doesn't mean its a 3.5 year old. there is no certian way to guess the age unless you have a history of a deer on trail cam or sheds. those two things can only help.

based on the one picture, my guess, which is purely a guess would be 4 plus years old.

[jnorm1984]

For those who don't believe that the 2nd buck is 8.5. Here is a pick with 3 yrs of sheds. One other didn't make the photo.

[slimngrizzly]

Thats a neat series! Its interesting how he changed slightly but doesn't seem to have gotten much bigger?!

Do you know what he looked like at 2,3,or 4 yrs of age? Why do you say hes 8 1/2, just curious?

Anyway NICE SHEDS AND NICE BUCK!

[muskiemanAD]

Wow, he didn't change much between those years.

[pureinsanity]

No doubt in my mind this is a 3.5 year old deer and not a day older...

Eyes are too round yet, no non typical points starting to develop, the brisket is noticeable but not pronounced. The belly line is flat, with just a little up turn at the rear, Rump isn't starting to looking more rounded, and the back line is flat.

If it was any older it would start to develop non typical points, back and belly lines would start to sag, the front knees would be bent in.

It could just be a fat deer, or it could be it is cold and puffed up a bit.

[tritonman]

JNORM, that is very awesome that you have all those sheds to go with that amazing buck! Very impressive!!! Pureinsanity, this is a photo of a 7.5 year old I shot in Wisconsin a few years back. Genetics play a huge role in what a rack will become. Abnormal points are just that...abnormal. This buck's body was huge and had a 21" spread but the tine length wasn't great and he probably went down hill a bit.

[bigbucks]

Wow that was a big deer & wide, but not even that much mass on the horns.

That trash rack buck is fantastic. I'm assuming he was aged by the teeth or something?

[jnorm1984]

Yes, he was aged by teeth. I did not kill this deer. There was about 6 different parties vested in that deer in the area. Everyone got to know him from trail cam pics and sheds. One of the guys has over 100 pics of him through the years.