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Age Guesstimate?????????

Big Timber

Big Timber

Moderator
What do you think he'll age? I know it's not a prime picture to age, but take a shot at it.

The photo is from last year, so lets age him for this year (add 1 to your guess)

326Nov25_Buck-med.JPG


BT
 
Tough to age by rack size alone, but if I took a stab in the dark I'd say he'll be 4 1/2 years this year.
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can't see his belly or face, but i'm going to say he's 4 1/2 due to the fact he's not sitting with as much mass as i'd expect in a 5 1/2 year old.

i LOVED these posts last year. pics of deer and then we can hear why or why not people would age them at specific ages.

EXCELLENT post BT
 
I would say 3.5, due to lack of mass, hard to tell without seeing the body, even then it's hard to tell lol
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You guys are right about being tough to judge. But you can still get an idea by the mass throughout the rack and also the neck is somewhat readible. You can see that his neck blends in well with his shoulders and he has good neck muscle. This would tell me that he was at least 3-1/2 last year.

Hopefully I'll get a shot at him this year and we'll get some results.

I will start posting aging photo's every week.

BT
 
I was once told that you can age a deer by it's teeth. Not only by wear, but like aging trees. Taking a cross section of a certain tooth will show growth rings.

Ever heard that one?

If so, how or where could a person get that done?
 
Going by the rack size only, I am guessing 3 1/2 last year 4 1/2 this year. He should have a heavier rack for the next few years if he lives that long.
Awesome deer I would not pass on.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I was once told that you can age a deer by it's teeth. Not only by wear, but like aging trees. Taking a cross section of a certain tooth will show growth rings.

Ever heard that one?

If so, how or where could a person get that done?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, I have seen an article on this. It is more of a longitudinal section rather than a cross section. It might have been in North American Whitetail magazine within the last year or so. Though more accurate than age estimate by tooth wear/emergence, I got the feeling that it would be very expensive.
 
I have 3 years of sheds off of one deer that started off as an approximately 2.5 year old 10. He never even got as much mass as this deer. Some deer don't. I would say 4.5 in the pic and 5.5 now. Hard to tell from the pic but he looks almost like he may have a swayback starting. He looks real heavy in build.
 
http://www.bowsite.com/BOWSITE/features/articles/deer/aging/

Article quote:
Although the tooth replacement/wear method is the standard in the field, other techniques have been developed to age deer. One method is called the cementum annuli technigue. This technique involves extracting the bottom front tooth or incisor and emerging it in formic or nitric acid. The acid actually decalcifies the tooth so the examiner can literally cut the tooth in half with a sharp knife. A very thin cross-section is cut out of the tooth and stained with a colored dye. The stained tooth section is mounted on a microscopic slide and the number of annual rings are counted. Just like rings on a tree, a growth ring is added every year of life. Thus, if the tooth has 3 rings, it's 3 1/2 years old.

See also:
http://www.northamericanwhitetail.com/deermanagement/dm_1103aging/

This link provides info on the "only commercial lab doing this technique":
http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=30
 
Gee, you had to give us a tough one didn't you!

Just on the rack I'd say 3 1/2 based on mass but I've seen all ages with moderate mass.

It would be great to see the rest of the neck. I think that is a real key for telling 3.5, 4.5 and older appart. Based on the look of the eye and given body confirmation I think he is at least 4.5.
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I can not say I would have a clue. If I was to guess I would say 3.5. It is really hard to tell with no more picture of the body than that.
 
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