ScottVA

I have been reading another forum..cabin chat.

It seems every other post someone is talking about a 2.5 year old 6 pointer, they saw walking or a 4 year old 8 pointer they let walk etc etc.,..

How in the heck are all these people telling the age of a deer?

I watched a video not too long ago that showed how you can tell the age by looking at the teeth...but all these guys are somehow telling the age while just watching a deer..it seems over there most of them do this...is it BS? or is there really a way to tell just looking at a deer?

They seem so sure of themselves when saying this as well...

1shotkill1993

I was wondering this too at some point.

I think they just go by the size of the deer and then like the darkness of the hair makes them older or something.

salukipv1

get a age poster from QDMA....

body size, rack, neck, belly, back, eyes, etc...all offer clues to a deers age...once you know the systerm its pretty easy to get within a year or 2...

around here during our hunting seasons deer are always 1/2yr old....2.5,3.5, etc...

okcaveman

as was said above, you can generally get within a year or 2 based on the way it looks. it is by no means a precise art. there are even many differences of opinion on aging deer by their teeth. it isnt precise either. for example if a deer lives in a area with sandysoils it is inevitable that it will chew some sand. that will wear teeth down faster than say a deer that lives in an area with silty or clayey soils. so precisely judging a deers age is a crap shoot. you cab get within a year or 2, but nothing precise once a deer gets over 1.5

MISwampDog

The best way to do it is ask the deer when his birthday is. seriously though, youngerbucks will have sleek bodies and shorter faces. the older bucks fill out. The chest will be bigger, and the body will be stockier, nose will elongate. Also, like people, deer kinda go grey. Look at the nose and face of the deer. if you see one with some grey (not all the time though) u are generally looking at an older deer.

ScottVA

hmmm very interesting...thanks a lot guys.

npaden

You can actually usually get pretty close at guessing a deer's age on the hoof using body characteristics.

There are some regional differences, northern deer develop larger bodies faster than southern deer so that makes a difference.

The best time to accurately age a buck on the hoof is during the rut. The amount of staining on their tarsal glands, how much swelling of the neck, etc. make aging easier than in the summer.

Here is a good article on aging deer in the southeast - http://msucares.com/pubs/publications/p2206.pdf

TurkeyStalker

You can guess the length from the tip of it's nose to the middle of the eye. I killed one that was 4 1/2 years old and measured about 8 1/2 inches. Their ears are roughly 6-8 inches long.

semi

Here in the midwest they use the teeth to determine the approx age of a deer.

M.Magis

Sorry, but that's just not feasible. As a taxidermist, I measure the eye-nose one every deer, though it's not to the center of the eye. As a general rule, older deer do have larger heads, but the difference between a large 2.5 year old and a 5.5 year old can only be 1/4". There's no way you can see that until the deer is dead.
The fact is most people are guessing. Some guess better than others.