I guess it could be a doe too, so judging by the body, and I am certainly no expert nor do I claim to be even a novice. I do a lot of deer watching and logging different ones in my book each year. That one looks a little more mature than 2 and a half to me, and the only reason I say this is.....just because it does, lol. The body and the face look mature enough to be 3 and a half or even upwards of that. I could be totally wrong though. My question to you is, "Do you know that deer, and if so, how old is he/she?" Thanks!!
I have no guess, but the whole age thing is very interesting to me. Yep, most of us want to kill a mature buck, but IMO most of us (myself included) can't tell one way or the other by looking. Even leading deer experts say that it is an "educated guess" at best and that in pen-raised deer situations they have had 1.5 year old deer look almost exactly like a 3.5 year old deer and between 2.5 and 5.5 it's even closer.
Aging by tooth wear is better, but still not close to exact. When I took my 2007 buck to the taxidermist he told me 5.5 after removing the jaw. Took that jaw to a DNR biologist and he told me 3.5 so I figured the taxidermist was not all that good at aging by tooth wear. The next year he aged my buck at 3.5 and the DRN guys agreed. Point being, hard to determine.
Good luck.
Oh, and...if they were both 3.5...the 2007 buck "Looked" older than the 2008 buck.
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Last edited by NavyDeerHunter; 10-28-2009 at 10:33 AM.
Age ?
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