yoderjac
Well-Known Member
Oh, that makes more sense! I forgot you had two places.
How old is this buck?
- Thread starter Lukeduke1588
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weekender21
Well-Known Member
An honest Wildlife biologist would tell you “2.5 or older”. Too much data to show beyond that is a guess. I’ve been sending teeth off for cementum annuli aging, even that’s not 100%.
I feel pretty good about it when my teeth ware “guess” matches the cementum annuli results but realistically I know it’s impossible to be completely sure without an ear tag at birth.
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weekender21
Well-Known Member
catscratch
Well-Known Member
Oh man is it! In an effort to leave less scent I've gotten to where I'll make my yote sets from a "squatted" position. It's probably comical watching me trying to get back up. Actually watching anything I do is probably pretty comical though.
Sounds like you have sort of a balance. If your yotes eat piglets you likely are ok with that. If you were to find a way to effectively drop your yote population your hog population may skyrocket. Probably rather have "not a lot of does" rather than way too many pigs?
I'm in the camp that 2.5 or older is about as good as I can get on a deer that I don't have history with. Even humans are the same. I know a lady who is 2yrs younger than my wife but I'd swear she is 15yrs older than her.
9x56MS
Active Member
That looks like a well fed deer. I am no expert on aging deer. My best guess would be between 2 1/2 to 3 1/2. At 4 1/2 with a deer that well fed I would think you would be seeing the sagging belly and back. The other side of the coin is, being that well fed it should be exhibiting better antler growth.
George
Well-Known Member
trail camara evidence from year to year is a good way to age deer.
Tooth wear is a guesstimate. My taxidermist in Michigan would age my Iowa bucks at 3 years of age. My soft silt Iowa soil didn.t wear teeth as fast.
cementum annuli is +/- 1, 50% of the time. That is a coin flip.
G
Tooth wear is a guesstimate. My taxidermist in Michigan would age my Iowa bucks at 3 years of age. My soft silt Iowa soil didn.t wear teeth as fast.
cementum annuli is +/- 1, 50% of the time. That is a coin flip.
G
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
I feel pretty confident in aging deer in three catagories if I can see them broadside with their heads up. A 1.5 year old looks like a doe with antlers. From 2.5 years to 3.5 years is an educated guess depending on the deer. The last category is 4.5 or older. That’s about all I will commit to. I watched a deer aging video years ago where it showed you a buck and paused while you made up your mind, then told you how old the deer was. I did very well on these known age bucks. Having said that, it varies with what part of the world that buck is in, even in my state it’s hard to age our different bucks. Each region has different body weights from the smaller Hill Country deer, the larger S. TX deer, and the bigger bodied deer next to OK. I don’t think you can pin it down to the year each time. I do believe that bucks can be aged well enough to shoot the buck you need/want to take.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Life by the Horns
Member
My guess would be 3.5.
Thing is you never know what a buck can turn into, but if you have better genetics running around I would have a kid take him out.
Thing is you never know what a buck can turn into, but if you have better genetics running around I would have a kid take him out.
weekender21
Well-Known Member
Ground check, works every time !
Ground check is still a guess but definitely confirms that’s “as old as he’ll ever get”!
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