Up here most bucks don't make it past their first three or fouryears. Those that do generally do allright but they never die of old age. In addition to dodging bullets during the hunting season all it takes is one bad winter or injury from the rut and the coyotes will get them.It's a hard life being a buck and those that make it to maturity have truly beaten the odds.

As for telling age, the deer up here (and in general i think) tend to gain more mass and non-typical junk as they grow old. The trade off is that their tine length suffers. Also, as a deer ages his pedicles (antler bases) will get further apart from each other to the point that on an old buck they will be almost on the side of his head.