I know for around here......to see a deer that's 4.5 yrs or older is rare. The FIRST thing I noticed about my recent buck .....was how grey he looked (COMPARATIVELY). When you see fawns, yearlings and the occasional 2.5 yr old on a regular basis (actually....not that many 2.5yr olds in 2+ yrs hunting)......an "older" deer (more grey??) is somewhat more noticeable.

Like I said.....Duke's comment just got me thinking.......

I beleive that some get that old looking grey to them in the face. I seen a couple doe's this year that i' passed up being I only had one tag this year that I beleive were in that 6.5 to 7.5 year old range if not older(They had no fawns either). They looked to be 140 to 150lb doe's with gigantic long wide heads with some of that old looking gray in them.

Jeff:

That huge doe that Dan took last season had the gray color to her as well. I don't know if this color change is a rule among older deer, but it certainly seems common.

The old, grey doe I saw last year had loose skin and she wasREALLY a very light ashengrey. She was being dogged by a 2.5 yr old buck....and to be honest....I could have shot either of them. I regret not taking the DOE!

The buck I'm referring to (from last year) was only a 5 pointer....and I remember posting that I thought he was an old guy and on the downhill side. Nearly everyone in the forum told me that color phase had nothing to do with age.

So....again...Duke's comments intrigued me.

Have a pick of that deer?

My nanny wacker which I will post a bit later was pretty grey. She weights close to 160lbs.

No photo of the deer I was talking about (either of them), from last year. The buck I shot this year, now....I've got a "couple"....lying around, somewhere!

I have a buck I call old Grey. He's a grey ghost and my brother got a 3 second glimpes of him at about 300 yards .. Sat. First time we've seen him since I filmed him two summers ago.. Even his summer coat has a real noticeable grey tint to it..

In Illinois one time,I saw this pig of a buck in a field feeding with a bunch of other deer. He would havegone 250pounds easy. He was noticebly more gray than every other deer in that field. I'll never forget the sight of that buck. He was amazing.

Sometimes I think we hunters think too much.

Every deer first is different. Each is born with a diff. mother and father which gives up their own genetic make up. With that being said some deer are greyer than others, some are browner than others etc. etc. etc.

But as many fur bearing mammals age.. they loose some pigmentation in their hair causing more grey.. or white.. what have you. Similiar to a dog or cat that also reaches older age.

So it's really just a combination of several diff. factors. I would not doubt that diet and health play a role as well.