HuntingNet.com Forums - How To Age Deer?

Can you age whitetail deer effectively?

Found this on another forum and decided to share:

Identifying different age classes of deer:

1.5 -The easiest of all 1-1/2 old

2-1/2 year old, still has skinny neck looks like a big doe with horns. Neck down to brisket is not full and usually has or shows a hump. The start of a nice set of horns, usually a 6 or 8 point but horns lack mass around the base and around G2’s. Tips of horns usually are around and out over the eye area.

3-1/2 year old, looks like a filled out race horse, very muscular neck is starting to blend into the brisket, gut is still tight like the 2 year olds. Horns are starting to develop mass in the base and G2 areas. Tips are starting to move forward and out towards the nose

4-1/2 year old, now has his brisket and neck pretty much the same. Now he has a gut starting to show. Almost same amount of mass in the horns as the 3 year old but is starting to develop width and height because the body has reached it’s maturity and now the animal can use the nutrition to build horns instead of muscle.

5-1/2 to 6 year old. Neck seems to blend into the shoulder and brisket just like the 4-1/2 year old but the gut is more defined as well as the back starting to sway. Now he starts to add more mass, width and height to the antlers on his head being fully mature.

7 year old and up. The start of the decline, baggy skin, pot belly and a lack of muscle tone. Horns will likely decline also…