Ageing deer?

[jmbuckhunter]

While people watching at the mall tonight,it gotme thinking. Looking at all of the teenagers walking by. I noticed that if they were deer I would have never guessed their age correctly just going by their body characteristics. I mean some are lean and trim. Some are very muscular and athletic. And then there are a ton that have themature deer pot belly and sway back.

Do you think deer might have that big of a range in body characteristics at a given age. I have seen all of the aging charts in the mags and books. But might it be how lazy they are or how much they eat every day that gives some that pot belly? What about that big swelled neck? Maybe those bucks are just better athletes than the rest of them. We can't all be middle linebackers.

After all like I saw in another thread. They say that Milo Hansens World Record buck was only 3 1/2 years old. Could that really be true?

Might we be way off on some of our buck aging?

[davidmil]

Not generally. Except for late born, early born, disease, climate conditions and all that... they pretty much follow a mold... but not exactly. You got that genetics stuff that can throw in a curve once in a while too. What you don't have that you have with people is some eating tofu and some eating fries and burgers. Deer all eat the same. Now if you're used to hunting deer in WVa and then go to Iowa, well there's going to be a big difference.

[JoeRE]

ORIGINAL: jmbuckhunter

While people watching at the mall tonight,it gotme thinking. Looking at all of the teenagers walking by. I noticed that if they were deer I would have never guessed their age correctly just going by their body characteristics. I mean some are lean and trim. Some are very muscular and athletic. And then there are a ton that have themature deer pot belly and sway back.

Do you think deer might have that big of a range in body characteristics at a given age. I have seen all of the aging charts in the mags and books. But might it be how lazy they are or how much they eat every day that gives some that pot belly? What about that big swelled neck? Maybe those bucks are just better athletes than the rest of them. We can't all be middle linebackers.

After all like I saw in another thread. They say that Milo Hansens World Record buck was only 3 1/2 years old. Could that really be true?

Might we be way off on some of our buck aging?

I agree to a point. I think the largest variance is at 3.5, where they can look quite mature or be slim lined like a 2.5 year old I think the older deer (5.5 or older) are easy to pick out with few exceptions.

From the info I have seen, the jury was our whether the Hanson buck was 3.5 or 4.5. Never say never, if it was a 3.5 it would be 1000X as rare as a world record 4.5 year old deer. The thing would gross like 245 typical at its prime.

[MGH_PA]

My initial thoughts are along the same lines as David's. Deer (for a give specific area) generally have a consistant and steady diet that's shared among the animals in your area. Deer don't have the luxury of having eating habits on both extremes of the diet spectrum like humans do (generally speaking), so I would say they are much more consistant in terms of age/body build characteritics than humans. I'm certainly no expert, so take it for what's it's worth. Just my observations.