re: Age of this deer?

Teeth

And I was probably right.

quote:

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Your inability to age deer on the hoof doesn’t mean others are unable to. I understand that your hunting situations don’t require you to age a deer, but there may come a time when you’d like to kill a certain age class of deer. If you have ten or more pictures of a buck and know what an age class looks like in your area, then anyone can age on the hoof. Sure, some will be wrong. But one can get in the ballpark.

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Wrong and I'll prove it soon. Don't mean that to come off sounding condescending. I've got over 20 years of photos and lab data. I know of 4 deer right this minute that nobody would guess over 4.5 that are close to or past 10 years old. You can tell a deer if it's old or young but once mature its just people throwing out numbers. I killed one last year that was aged at 11 by cementum annuli testing. Barely enough root to even age and 2 of the teeth were to the gun. Molars were almost wore flat to the gum line. I had over 5 years of pics but nobody had guessed the deer over 5.5.

The most interesting thing to me with following deer into old age is how the racks change among individual deer after they peak out. Some barely decline, some greatly decline and 1 just kept getting better. They mostly decline though and the "mass" theory usually doesn't hold true.

“Once mature, people are throwing out numbers…”. If hunters and biologists can age a buck as mature, are we not doing a good job of aging?

There are physical attributes that make me think that buck is young. At least "younger" than "mature". He's an "adolescent" buck. Genetics and habitat/nutrition play into whether he's 2-1/2 or 3-1/2 or 4-1/2.

Legs look long for body
General muscular/athletic looking build
Hind quarters more pronounced than front shoulders
Neck/brisket contour discontinuous
Neck not very girthy

If he's a piney forest buck, he could be 4-1/2. If he's a good soil/ag field buck, he might be 2-1/2. Where does he live?

based on recent pictures of my puffed up 2 year olds around the house, I'd say 2.5.
They look more mature because of the swollen neck and thick coat... but you can tell the body is small based on the size of the coon in the pic.

Typical occurrence on Louisiana pine plantations, the deer are usually at least a year older than they appear in my experiences.

non-shooter, that's all that matters.