got permission to hunt some private ground and they want to keep the smaller bucks, can shot 4 year old and older. My question, what's a good way to age them while they are still running around?!

Keith, i don't know myself,, but appx. 2 weeks ago there was a post by someone who owns a deer farm and he posted pictures of the deer at different ages. Hope you find it or someone else remembers the posts name.

Didn't help much. I do agree with him that you really can't tell the age till you get the jaw and measure it. I saw somewhere though you can tell by there snout and the older they get, they get a slump in the back.

Sorry about the info. not helping you,, maybe some body else knows and if not you might want to check back with the owner of this land

If I'm not mistaken I believe that the amount of hair covering the inside of a whitetails ear is a "field" indication of age.

Now if only I could get the deer to hold still while I count... J/K.

This is a tough one. I've never been good at it! Perhaps asking the people who you got permission from would be the best bet.

You got to card them, aging a deer takes some skill that comes from experience. I usually can age up to 3 1/2 and after that it gets harder from 4 to 7. It that post did't help I dont know what to tell you. I just seen many derr in 44 years and it sorta came to me.