Guess the age of this buck
 

got an alive and dead pics of him. guess an age then I'll tell you the real answer. We had a biologist look at his teeth and give us a good estimate.

The alive picture hes a year younger then the dead pics. Take a guess at age. I'm curious to know if anyone can be close.

I gues between 4 and 4 1/2

I'm going to guess 2 and a half when he was shot. In the live picture his antlers sure look like the antlers of an older buck, but his body definitely says otherwise.

The gray hair around his cheeks and ears easily puts this buck over 5 years old.

3.5 or 7.5 hard to say

Couldn't see the live pics of him, but judgeing from the rack and the fadcial coloring I'd say 7 yrs.

3.5 Live, 4.5 Dead....

Judging by the body size and a fairly short nose and no chest deepth to speak of, live age 2 1/2...........freezer age 3 1/2

i would say 4.5 to 5

Tough to say, he could have been on the decline. Easiest thing to do is get a tooth ager, they tend to take the guess work out of it if you are really interested.

I have a buck hanging on my wall that was aged around 7 1/2 his coloring on his face is very similar to yours so I am guessing 7 1/2. Very nice looking deer I love the mass.

2.5 live....3.5 Dead

I'm gonna say 5 1/2 to 6,anything more and they start loosing mass.
That one don't seem to be lacking in any :biggrin:.

4 to 4 1/2 years in the freezer...

2 1/2 live 3 1/2 dead

Im guessing that you didnt read the part that said that he had already got a deer biologist to look at his teeth.

4.5 live 5.5 when he was shot.

Bout 6 Where you live?

I am going to go with 6 to 6 1/2

7.5 he may be older than that.

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.

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

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

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 :biggrin:. Congrats. I love the mass on him.

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.

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

3 years old

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.

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

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.

I am going to guess 6 1/2.

I am going to say 3.5 alive. 4.5 dead. Short nose, and body says young buck but an excellent rack. That's my guess....

LOL ..WATA YA MEAN WHATS THE ANSWER...THIS IS ONE OF THOSE JUS GUESS THINGS...NOONE WILL REALLY KNOW...I SEEN A 1 YEA OL DEER THAT LOOKED LIKE A 7 YEAR OL DEER ON A DEER FARM..SO WHO KNOWS:sign0004:

Well I wish I had a picture of his teeth for you guys (or should I say lack of teeth) It's pretty wild


he has no back teeth, top or bottom and his fronts are just nubs. His hooves are wore down quite a bit aswell


the biologist says hes between 7.5-9.5 years old. He said its a little harder to tell age with some deer because some eat more corn then others. He says corn is really hard on their teeth. Well this guy had no corn inside him the day we gutted him. Full of beans and apples though. He wouldnt beable to chew corn with teeth like that!


this must be a very smart buck, the area we hunt is heavily pressured. Everyone pushes bushes and sounds like a war zone everyday during the shotgun hunt. He was shot in a very thick swamp, just seen rack for a long time and heard him grunt every few seconds, finally stepped out in a little clearing where he made his biggest mistake.


I agree the trail cam pic makes him look young, We all guessed him to be about 4.5-5.5 years old.

I agree. Looks like 4.5 when you took him

4yrs old i would say