re: Age this fella

4.5 tops. I’d cull his arse

The water authority area. It’s been good to us for a few years. I killed a 120, nice deer 3 1/2. Buddy killed a 150 last year. No ducks of course, but hear a ton. Head to Oklahoma annually for that bit of fun. Lots of deer and it’s hunted pretty regularly considering it’s in the city limits.

I’ll take the contrarian position.

He’s young. I’m guessing him at 1.5yo. His second rack.

They pack on quite a bit of antler over the final month. He’ll see some growth between now and September.

All considered, no mass. No real tine length. Spread is narrow. No secondary characteristics like kickers that you often see in 3 year olds and older.

Beyond that, got that long baby face. Back doesn’t sag and his paunch would be pretty pronounced if he was older.

That said, young deer.

Percent confidence - 95%

I agree Wiltz. He doesn’t look old.

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I agree with your assessment Wiltz. I was surprised when folks were saying older than 3....but then again, I suck at aging deer on the hoof

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It’s shocking to me how many folks believe the old wives tales of 1 point per year, etc.

Like fishing stories, people consistently overestimate deers age and score.

There’s some great information on the QDMA website about field judging whitetails.

There’s also some great information there about sound game management. There’s plenty of folks in Texas who’d tell you to shoot this deer because he’s weak and you want their genetics gone. James Kroll followed “weak” deer for years and you’d be amazed how much the racks changed from 1 to 2 years old. A simple drought made the racks look small and masked their true potential.

Aging them on the hoof is an inexact science; but, I’ll say this. If you see a 4 or 5 year old whitetail in most parts of the country there’s little doubt whether or not you’ll be shooting. They are giants and you’ll be tripping over yourself to get the gun out of the blind.

The data collected from dozens of States show the average whitetail buck harvested in the US hasn’t even seen its first birthday.

It’s probably because most people don’t get to see a deer really progress in age & physical development

Sorry fella; facts are facts, that’s a young deer. After he loses his velvet he’ll be hard pressed to score 70 inches. James Kroll aka “Dr Deer” has studied deer for decades across the country. I mean, he literally wrote the book that every game manager in the country uses. Empirical data from thousands of deer doesn’t lie. I would defer to your opinion; but, that goes against 30 years of empirical evidence. That heavyweight you speak of is about 120lbs on the hoof. He’s a baby, the fact he’s running with another 1.5 year old tells you all you need to know.

I’d agree if he didn’t have such a pronounced brisket area. Other pictures I have of them, he is much larger, rounder in the mid section.

Not sure what strain was brought to this area, but Michigan deer were transplanted to middle Georgia. He may be young, considering the running with younger deer that would make sense. That’s why I asked opinions. Generally pretty easy to judge, due to the fact I’ve seen them year to year. This is a new property.

Most GA whitetail deer drop their fawns in May. Typical 200 day gestation period.

As the son of a former GA DNR Biologist/Southern Company Environmental Impact Scientist who has had the occasion to weigh hundreds if not thousands of deer and witness jawbone aging by academics throughout my childhood/teens I can’t be more certain in my assessment.

He’s a pretty typical one year old who may get better with age. His buddy shown in the other photo has better potential at face value than he does.

May-June doesn’t make much difference from July. I didn’t know Georgia’s rut was so early thanks for the information; it might come in handy in the future.

Since we are credential dropping, I have weighed hundreds of deer and pulled hundreds of jawbones. I have worked with Wildlife Biologists on aging deer/jaws, other data collections and habitat improvements on large tracts of land, it’s literally my job.

I could very well be wrong, but I doubt it. Hopefully we get more pics and a possible jawbone pic if he decides to try and kill him. I’ll admit it if I’m proven wrong, or if another set of pics can cause me to doubt what I said about him being 3.