MOTOWNHONKEY

Nope, no relation that I have noticed. The buck I got this year has a chocolate rack and his teeth age him at 3 1/2. Tooth wear is the only method I know to properly age deer.

Leverdude

Is it wear or how many they have? Like I said, I dont know but thought he was counting the back teeth.

shed33

Antler color comes from the type of plant species that the deer rub on. I have harvested a couple bucks right after they have shed their velvet. The boneis almost completely white due to the lack of rubbing. Even whenbuck rubs off hisvelvet he begins to add color...I also have these bucks sheds from the year or two prior. The sheds conversly are much darker due to the bucks abilty to rub. Rubbing puts the color on antlers. Here I see a variety of antler color. Bucks that rub predominately on pines/fir are brown and white. Cedar rubbed antlers are reddish brown and willow and poplar rubbed bucks have dark chocolate antlers here. I have found from scouting specific bucks that they tend to find a sapling species of choice and usually stick to that type of sapling. I believe they take a liking to certain cambium odors.

One other observation. From finding hundreds of shed antlers I have always noticed younger bucks rub less. I believe this could have to do with increased testosterone levels of older bucks versus younger bucks. Most of my 3.5 year old and older buck sheds are covered with color, not always but most are........ on the contrary almost everyone ofthe young buck sheds I have found are partially colored. I don't think these 1.5 year olds and 2.5 year olds are as aggressive in their rubbings, don't get me wrong they rub and rub plenty but the bigger older bucks seem to really prepare more intensly for the rut imo.. just my 2 cents..

Rack-attack

I am not sure about this.

I have seen pen raised deer with only a few trees to rub and antler coloration can vary greatly.

bigbuck15

yeah i dont think the color of the rack has much to do with the age of the deer..my dad shot a really old deer this year bout 4 and a half years old..whiter than snow rack...i shot a smaller 5x5 this year about 2 2 and half years old this year and had a really really dark chocolately colored rack..i think it has more to do with the surroundings the bucks are in as to what color there antlers are..like i agree with greg h..whatever trees they rub on give them that color of rack..if you want to know the age of your deer id take a look at the teeth..i think thats the most accurate..

ilovehunting

I really dont agree because it seems it depend on where you are and the deers genetics and nutrition. Canadas deer seem to have alot of dark colored horns. I dont know for sure, just my opinion.

MOTOWNHONKEY

Leverdude, it is the wear of the teeth that ages them not the amount of teeth.

DaveH

It could be diet, genetics, whatever . . . but it's not age related. I've seen young, small racked deer with dark antlers and with light colored antlers. And I've seen some real bruisers, mature deer with large racks--bothwith the darkor light colored antlers.

BowHunter46

But couldn't small rack deer just be older buck that are past there prime?

BenfromVa

Deer are typically aged by how many teeth, and wear on those teeth. There are certain molars they get at certain ages, after they get their last molar then the only real way is to look at wear.
Any deer aging tool will show you this.
At a point in a bucks life the body shape plays a huge role in aging from a far, the heavier the chest and sagging belly line will help greatly in judging this in the field with a buck standing for you to judge. Hunting.net may even have this info somewhere with picks.
Here is one with drawings but I have seen some with actual picks of various aged deer in the wild.
http://www.1atexasdeerhunting.com/bodyagingdeer.htm

Deer antlers may be colored by several things but most of the time deer that bed in open swamps with alot of sunlight or fields with alot of sunlight will have bleached type racks, white or very light yellow. Bucks that bed in some deep thickets where sunshine is minimal will most always have dark racks.

a week ago I was out retrieving a duck I shot in an open marsh, I walked through some high weeds and jumped a 8 pointer with about a 19 to 20 inch spread about 50 yards from "land" and his rack was very white looking. I saw a good buck come out of another field type swamp this year while bow hunting and his was the same, very light. Where I normally bow hunt it is very thick and the bucks seen there sometimes you have to glass late in the eve just to see if they have antlers at all, at dusk it is hard to tell because their racks tend to be dark.