dooittoit

I'm going to stick my neck out here and say WITHOUT A DOUBT, that this is definitely not an old buck. He's all legs. Put a normal basket rack on him and he looks like any other 1.5 year old buck(in the live picture) although he's a very impressive young buck. Seen lots of young bucks with the grayish looking hair before.

iSnipe

He's 6 1/2 years old when you killed him.

Nice job and congratulations on taking a mature animal, who obviously knew how to survive several hunting seasons and predators... until you came along. LOL!

Nice pics.

iSnipe

CodyGuess

im goin say 4.5 when alive an 5an half when u got him

naildriver2

Nice buck. I'm not that good at judging age,but after looking at the pics. I really looked close and have determined that he is for sure 100% not gonna get any older . Congrats. I love the mass on him.

GVoverstreet7

He's between 3 and 4.5 years old. you can tell he's not a very mature buck because in the trail cam photo his back isn't bowed down yet, he's still pretty healthy and probably one of the younger bucks in your area. he's still a nice kill don't get me wrong, and that rack is a pretty cool one. But i'd say if you gave him another year or 2 he'd been even bigger.

heavenlykid

what does his hoof print measure you can also get a good guess by his teeth i would say over 5 without a doubt but i would have to see his teeth and his hoof print to be more positive he might not be that big in the body but thats normal for older deer how many old people you know that are still all beefy not many deer are very similar once they go over there prime their body starts wearing down

SpinnerOfWood

3 years old

npaden

Hard to tell much on aging a deer based on dead photos unless they are of his jawbone. The live picture looks like a 3 1/2 year old to me, but northern deer tend to be bigger bodied deer so he could be younger. Legs look to be long proportionate to body size and his front shoulders and neck aren't as muscled up as you would expect on a fully mature buck. Not sure when your rut is, but he has limited tarsal staining if the rut is getting close, you would expect rub urination marks nearly to his hooves if he was a mature buck in the 2008 picture.

I would guess at the time of the kill he was 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 slightly leaning toward 3 1/2 based on the larger body sizes of northern deer.

Tooth wear analysis on older deer is also not an exact science. Up to 2 1/2 it is usually dead on, but after that you end up with some guess work and variation as well. Lots of things come into play like the individual deer's preferred diet (soft mast vs. hard mast), etc.

Cementum annuli aging by a lab on the growth rings on the lower incisors is the most accurate way to age a mature deer.

cwanty03

so what is the answer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Champlain Islander

At first when I looked at the dead picture I said on the decline and possibly older than 7 1/2 years. Then I saw the live picture and he has about the same rack and doesn't have the body traits that say he is old. I see you are from Ontario and those bucks easily go well over 200 pounds when mature. He has the antler mass associated with Canadian deer but his body size appears small. I say he is a 3 1/2 year old dead deer.