Deer and Deer Hunting had the results of a study in it which basically agrees with the other posters. B ut I can't find the darn thing.

Larry Koller's book, "Shots at Whitetails", the bible of deer hunting for the WW II crowd, says that there is one way to get an idea of a deer's age from the antlers, the angle of the antlers with the ground gets lower with age. The antlers get more and more horizontal where the meet the skull as the deer gets older.

He also says the following: "However, although there is no steady progression, as the buck progresses in age and at the same time remains a vigorous animal, racks of 10, 12 or even more points are grown more often."

beprepn