Win.88

How about the size of the base of the antlers? I think that is a way to tell the age.I have gotten deer with wider racks than others but had smaller bases.That made me think it was younger.

crenshaw

What i have come to study is a multiple of features.The rack is where i start (cause want to know if im shooting or sitting) Then i look at the chest, if the chest sticks out in front of the shoulders its usually a good method to tell if the deer is mature, along with the belly. If the belly hangs lowjust like with cats, its another way to tell a bit mature animal. If it has a roan nose( hump on the nose) another good way to tell age. Some times really old deer will be more grey. During the rut, checking out the tarsal glands too, young bucks tarsals will not be nearly as blown up and black as an older buck, however thats not always the case. Aging them on the hoof takes practice and knowing the appearence of deer in your area. Nothing is 100% until its down and you can examine the teeth.

M.Magis

The teeth are far from 100% as well. BTW, it's Roman nose.

Win.88

We have Italian deer????????

crenshaw

thankyou for the correction. but i have actually heard it both ways.

And if you get your teeth checked by a biologist like we do on are farm, they come back pretty dam close, within a month or so.

M.Magis

I've never heard of a "roan" nose, only roman. Interesting.
I do believe they are telling you that they're that accurate, but there's absolutely no way they can tell that close. There's no guarantee that they are within a year, let alone a month. It's simply an educated guess.

rybohunter

If they grind them down and do a ring count, I believe that is as accurate as it gets and is pretty much exact.

M.Magis

Actually, it's stillnot 100% accurate, but closer. The rings don't indicate one year like we think with trees. Each ring indicates a period of stress for the deer, usually assumed to be winter. If winter was the only period of stress for a deerduiring its life, those rings would be accurate. However, a period of stress could also be an injury, or drought,or change in environment. The rings will tell the maximum age a deer can be, but they can't guarantee the deers age.
Nothing short of an ear tag can give an exact age.

EnglishHope

The way I try to tell the age is just look at the rack and body size. The hair color can help a little bit for me also.

BarnesX.308

You gotta' check their ID .

I also love the guys who can identify a buck each year. How do they know it's the same buck? They're going to have a different rack the next year so you can't go by that.

Lot's of guessing going on, I think. Except for on the high-fence ranches where the deer have numbered ear tags.