Hey guys,

A buddy of mine shot two does this year on the same trip. He brought them to the DNR check stations and they weighed his deer and sawed their jaws open to indicate the age.

One of his deer weighed 90lbs dressed and was aged at 2.5 years old.

But then the other deer weighing 94lbs dressed was aged at 6.5 years old.

Is it possible for a deer to be that old and only weigh 94lbs?

I saw pictures of both deer and I would have given them both the same 2.5 years old about 100lbs. They both looked like normal healthy does.

My buddy says the DNR indicated age by counting the teeth. Is this a reliable method to age a deer?

Thanks

Tom

The weight of the deer depends on the habitat that it lives in. The more food for the deer the bigger it will get. If you hunt in an area with farm fields you can expect deer to go well into the 200 lbs range, but if you don't a 200 pound deer is not common. I live in northern Michigan where a big deer is 160 - 180 lbs. The average deer weighs about 120 - 130 on the hoof. The habitat is mostly oak trees and cedar swamps. The good food is not there. My dad shot a 12.5 year old doe that weighed about 120 dressed. On the flip side i shot a 7.5 year old doe that weighed 130 lbs dressed.

As far as determining age, the DNR does not count the teeth, but they look at the wear on the teeth. A deer's teeth will wear down over time. The DNR guesstimates the age by wear and will give an absolute age if they take a tooth and cut it into a cross section. Like trees, a deer's tooth has growth rings on the inside. For every year the tooth grows a ring.

Yes itis what happens when deer population is larger then the land can provide.

Head to a metro park in MI, skinney sick looking deer.

There are a lot of variables to this. I believe that genetics plays a big part in this. As do the species and subspecies. These are observations from two of the areas that I hunt. Wis. and Ill, 50 miles apart. Bucks only.

Wis. 1 1/2- 125 - 145 lbs. Ill. 1 1/2 - 130 - 150 lbs.
2 1/2- 145 - 165 lbs.2 1/2 - 150 - 170 lbs.
3 1/2 - 170- 190 lbs. 3 1/2 - 180 - 205 lbs.
4 1/2 - 180 - 200+ lbs. 4 1/2 - 190 - 225+ lbs.

For being only 50 miles apart, I don't know why the difference. The Ill. deer seem to have longer bodies.

In an area where I hunt up north in Wis., the land is very hilly and the deer are built differently. They have shorter bodies and barrel chests. They are built for hill climbing, unlike the steer like animals of Ill.

These are just my observations.

Thanks for the info guys. I see how it could happen with this information but I still feel like my buddies deer is an extreme outlier.

Tom