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Age or Score?

gundog870

gundog870

Premium Platinum Member
Just a quick question in regards to the Post about more larger whitetails being harvested. How many of you base your Management practices strictly on Age and where do you set the bar? I hear a lot of guys saying, my limit is 140" or so on. I am just curious how many of you have a Score requirement as compared to how many people have an age requirement?
 
We try to shoot 4.5's and older, regardless of score. Love to see them reach 5.5 or 6.5, but a good 4.5 year old buck is hard to pass most of the time. Deer can sometimes be hard to age, so on occasion younger deer get taken from one of our farms. We try to learn from these mistakes and move on, but our primary goal is to shoot only mature deer. KCCyclone found a giant non-typical that went close to 180" on our KS farm this year. Our biologist (and several others) aged his teeth at 2.5 years old. There's no telling what he would have been at 4.5 or 5.5, but I don't think many would have been able to pass him up.
 
I shoot 3.5 year olds and older. I only have 2 farms to hunt, one is 80 acres and the other is 120 acres so I can't be too picky. I'll usually hold off the 3.5 year olds until crunch time, like this year, Nov. 28th got a nice fat 3.5 year old. I passed on some 3.5 year olds late season that are going to be nice next year. I guess it just depends on my mood at the time.

Like someone said in the other thread, the key is to let them get past that first year of being a 1.5 year old. Then they become a lot harder to kill and you'll see your mature buck population start to increase.
 
I have been told by some very reliable people that the only way to truly guage a deer's age is by its teeth. SO how do you really know how old a deer is? I know about judging the body but it is not always accurate. I shot a 165 10 point with the smallest body and everyone gave me crap for killing a young deer. Turns out, it was aged at 6 1/2 years old by its teeth. Plus who would pass up a 165 that looks like its a young deer? I am just curious about your thoughts. I have just never been a fan of "how old the deer is." Just my opinion though.:)
 
My choice is always by age first. Score is a secondary issue. I will shoot any buck I believe to be 4.5yrs or older if it meets my score criteria. I don't have a set score I'm looking for. I'm typically just looking for something bigger or more unique than years prior, but that is usually a decision made in the moment. I gotta say a mid 150's 3.5yr old standing at 20yds is pretty hard to pass on, however, I managed to restrain myself twice this year and plan on doing so in the future as well.
 
The only way I feel confident aging deer is by trail camera history. Most of the deer that are "native" to my farms have been there for several years and I know if they are 3.5 or 4.5. The ones that show up late season or during the rut are just a guess on how old they are. I won't shoot one unless it is 4.5 or older.
 
I see people on tv shows saying the deer is 3.5 and I think 2.5, or they say hes young and I think mature. trail cameras tell you a good idea if you have history of him. The hardest part is figuaring if he is 2.5 or 3.5 from the first pic
 
5&1/2 and older. 165" 3 or 4 year old is about the worst buck someone could shoot (if they are hunting on my land with my rules).
*no one will be 100% correct on age. We're generally 80% correct when check teeth. We make our best guess from close analyzation. Takes time/experience to do that. Not pushing my values on other folks BUT you asked what I do. Just what I choose on my land, do our best job to shoot 5&1/2 & older.
 
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this was my first good year to try and get a handle on the younger and older ones. i have no reason to shoot a deer thats not mature. im out to shoot a big deer and if we kill the first nice one we cant kill a big one. i let a 3.5 150s buck walk by this year, it was tough because ive never even killed a 150 before. i know hes young and has great potential and i also know there are a couple better bucks on the farm. 5 days after i passed him up, i shot a 185in typical ten. some call it luck. my goal is to only kill a mature deer, but i would have to say if a 200in 3.5 walked by me with my bow in hand, im gonna shoot.
 
Antlers....

But in reality,..I'm not going to find too many shooters around here any less than 4 1/2.

Climate and growing season just make that a very rare thing.
 
cjc77z4 said:
I have been told by some very reliable people that the only way to truly guage a deer's age is by its teeth. SO how do you really know how old a deer is? I know about judging the body but it is not always accurate. I shot a 165 10 point with the smallest body and everyone gave me crap for killing a young deer. Turns out, it was aged at 6 1/2 years old by its teeth. Plus who would pass up a 165 that looks like its a young deer? I am just curious about your thoughts. I have just never been a fan of "how old the deer is." Just my opinion though.:)
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I agree 100%. I see alot of people saying that a deer looks mature because of his roman nose, blocky head, or gray on the face. None of these hold any truth. The truth is deer are just like people. They can all look different. The look of a deer has to do completely on their genes, not the age. The only certain way to tell a deer's age is by the teeth.
 
Here, age this buck. 17 scorable, 16 wide, 6 5/8 inch bases, 20 inch mb.
9927-9333_586490058911_185007678_34530213_3041101_n.jpg
 
I heard an outfitter from Alberta say once that " if it doesnt take your breath, away dont shoot it". For me that is 170 plus, which most of the time is going to be a mature deer, but not always. The buck I shot this year was a 174 slick ten that was 4 1/2 which is borderline mature, last year it was a 166 slick 8 point that was aged at 7 1/2 so I guess its all in the moment. With that said, I think it should be a personal thing, what ever makes someone happy is what they should kill, thats really what it is all about.
 
You can find guides all over on internet, magazines, etc that show you CHARACTERISTICS of deer of certain ages. There is absolutely traits you can look at consistent with certain ages. Here's one EXAMPLE of millions of articles/photos, etc out there...
http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2206.pdf some of the other articles show/explain detailed photos of 1,2,3,4,5, etc year old deer.

NO ONE is 100%!!!!!!! It's easy to be off by a year. Sometimes deer are big shockers, maybe you thought it was 5&1/2 but it ended up being 3&1/2 OR maybe it was 9&1/2 but you thought it was 5&12. HAPPENS!!! The idea is: can you use characteristics including snout, rack, chest, mass, sagging belly & back, grey snout, etc to guage the reasonably accurately the age of deer? ABSOLUTELY, just don't plan on being right 100% of the time. *Like I said, we send teeth in and are correct AROUND 80-85% of the time.
 
Sligh, what would you say the age of this deer is? Long skinny nose, a characteristic of a young deer, but a very gray face.
5016-100_1565.jpg
 
In my opinion, it's a lot easier to judge a deer's age when it is on its feet. I'm confident at my ability to call a buck 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, or older/ mature (as in 4, 5, 6, etc.) The hardest ages to guess are in the 4-5 range and then the 6-9 range, but I think you can still be confident to say whether they are more towards 4 or more towards 9.

Like Sligh said... you can never be 100% certain, but at the same time you can be pretty darn confident.
 
I know there are many different to age and judge, I am just curious what you need to see to deem a shooter, and what is more efficient!

Thanks for all the great info! Keep it coming!!
 
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