ORIGINAL: _Dan
Here's a question.....I hear a lot of guys saying that they see bucks that are x.x yrs old and x.x years old. How do you detemine that you saw 2 3.5 and 1 4.5 year old in a season? Are you basing this on antler size? Body composition? Have you been watching this deer for x number of years? So, when guys tell me they are seeing bucks of a certain age, I don't put much stock in it. Its more of a guess than a fact. Kind of like the numbers a lot of guys throw out about rack size on live deer.
I base age on antler size (to be more spacific antler mass ) And body composition. My taxidermist always puts a tag on the antlers with a bunch of info on it. One of the things he puts on the tag is the deers age. I have had 4 mounted by him. they were aged at 4 1/2, 4 1/2, 5 1/5, 7 1/2. I guessed right on the 4's and 5. The 7 1/2 I guessed he was at least 6 1/2. In the area I hunt the deer seem to develope in a fairly typical manner.3 1/2's might havenice tine length and width but lack the mass.So they are easyto tell apart from 4 1/2. At 5 1/2 they seem to be the whole package but are usually fairly clean yet. After that it can get hard to age them correctly. The same goes for aging by body. The 4 1/2's are solid but still don't show the signs of and older body. The 5's start to show those huge front shoulders. They make the ass look small. and their belly's seem to dip a little more. The deer older then that look old. they may even show signs of a downward trend. Taken as a whole package I have been able to judge age fairly close. I don't know if this is typical of other areas because I have no experience besides Wis. and Minn. Also deer in northern Minn. will outweigh their northern Wis counterparts. I will agree with you that it is a guess. All deer are not the same. I also believe that aging by tooth wear is a guess. I will also agree that scoring a rack on the hoof is very hard to do. I had an earlier thread where I told people to go to a deer show and quick score the deer on the wall then check the actual score. It's tough to do. When I'm hunting and see a buck I just look at it and decide if I think it's something I want to shoot. If I like what I see I shoot. My 130" benchmark is just a number that fits the size of rack that I would be happy to end my season on. Also where I hunt a deer has to be 4 1/2 to get that size of rack. I believe it's due to the available feed.
For the record: I believe that hunting is a personal activity. We all have our own reasons and goals and expectations. Everyone should shoot whatever makes them happy whatever the rack size or age or sex. If what makes a hunterhappy isn't currently available in his/her area don't "discuss" it on a forum, take action.