RE: Aging Questions?
The only reliable method to age a deer in the field is through tooth wear and replacement. And once a deer gets to be about 3-4 yr's old, it's more difficult. The diet doesn't seem to make much difference. Soils do. Deer from sandy areas have faster tooth wear than deer from loamy or clay soils. More grit in their food.Deer seem to favor one side of the jaw or the other for chewing. One side will wear faster than the other. You really need to look at the whole lower mandible to do a credible job of age estimation. thickness of bone can verybetween individual deer and is not a reliable measure of age. A buck generally has more muscle mass than a doe, so chances are their bones will be larger, thicker, etc. even in the same age class. I've looked at hundreds of deer jaws, I've never seen tooth decay in any of them, regardless of diet.