As I said Greg, I'm definately no expert butdueto my profession in pathologyI have quite an interest in this subject. It is a well known that rack size, deer weight, coat color, and overall appearance can give a general 'young deer'or'mature age' classification, but nothing more.
I'm no expert either but due to my profession as an electrician and armchair biologist I have quite the interest in this subject myself. [8D]
However, other than color of coat, everything else listed above definitely gives more of a definition of age than just 'young deer' or 'mature deer'.
Rack size:
In the area where these deer are hunted the rack size can definitely get you in the ball park of age class.For the average......
1 1/2 - spike to about 80"
2 1/2 - 70" to about 115"
3 1/2 - 120" to about 140"
4 1/2 - 135" to about 150"
5 1/2+ - 145" to 170"+
The mass of the rack is also indicative, especially between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2. Stickers are another indicator of age (generally).
These are the average figures that can get you close. Now you throw in body shape and appearance(roman nose, pot belly, swagger etc), the size and shape and wear of the hooves, especially the fronts. Now you can start picking out age class. At least I can ,along with several other guys that I know. As I said before, it is a best guess based on our years of experience with the deer in this area. We feel that we are within a year of our guesstimates and definitely more accurate than... young..... mature.
While tooth wear aging isa much better indicator, there are geographic variations in this methodas well.The dentine thickness compared to the enamel thickness is the keycomponent of this techniquealong with how much the last cusp of the back molar slopes down.
Yes, this was addressed in my initial post.
One thing is for certain, regardless of locationan 8.5 y/o deer has extreme wear to the point ofcupped dishes for mid molars,
I'm not certain about that. There are too many variables to say this is true for all locations. Who said it was for certain?
and yours doesn't look anything like that to me,
I addressed this in my initial post as well. I have to agree, it doesn't look like the ones in the pics from the web sites that you posted. To be fair, I don't think that their jaw bones are from the same location as mine. The one was from Texas.
but a wildlife biologist could tell you more. The front incisor analysis would certainly be the best way to go in the case of both jaws you pictured. Let me know if you get this done, or if you get a local biologist to examine yours as I'm very interested in what they'd conclude.
I tried this once, I brought the rack, a pic and the jaw bone from a 20", 140 5/8" 8 pointer that field dressed at 193 pounds to my local whitetail biologist......... He told me it was a 1 1/2!!
I am interested in getting the teeth analyzed. If I do, I'll let you know.