How old was he?
 

I'm looking for some opinions from those who have more experience with this than myself. My father and brother found a buck on the river bank while they were turkey hunting and it was a decent what would have been 8pt had he not busted off his g2 on one side and G3 on the other. For those that like numbers right around 125 inches I'd guess. I could have shot him second night of rifle season but he was busted up and at 100 yards with the fog there was no way I could tell how old he was so I let him walk hoping next year id see him not all busted up. I'm almost certain I had pictures of him two years ago now that I've had my hands on him. Anyways, he only had two front teeth left. The rest were worn completely down. Everything I've found suggests he was around 9 1/2 which to think a deer could get that old in our neck of the woods is pretty cool. So, for those who have experience with this how old would you think he was given the tooth info?

Probably at least 8 or 9 years old if he was up here in typical midwest country eating what they eat to wear their teeth down. They don't get big and old by being stupid and a lot don't ever get seen other than during the rut, if that after they get 3 or 4 years under their belt.

I suppose I should add that this is central Wisconsin. Ya we only ever saw him twice while hunting and twice on camera. All during the rut. He looked like he only weighed about 140 pounds when he was found so I'm sure he unfortunately starved to death.

Everything I have read says they rarely live to be over 10 years old, unhunted. Given the loss of teeth and the state of starvation, this deer was probably at least 8 years old and likely over 9 as you state. Definitely well past the 4 1/2 age that many consider as fully mature. I would say you have a pretty good area if bucks can get that old!

Ya that is by no means the norm over there unfortunately. Many bucks don't make it past 1 1/2. 6 last year didn't... But that was the worst it had been since I started hunting 9 years ago.

Unless you have an awful big piece of property that you can control as far as what's being killed, what you mentioned happens most of the time and why a deer you pass gets killed later on an adjacent piece of property. That is also why I'm against QDM point restrictions when the area has so much private property where the owners are told what they can and can't shoot when it's my belief that it should be up to the property owner. Public land is a completely different ball game depending on the condition of the herd, buck to doe ratio, etc.

200 acres of our own and all the neighbors lay off the small ones. Probably a total of 900+ acres between the few neighbors and us. The six that I'm referring to were all killed by our group. Three by one individual. Which is why I am not a fan of the party hunting system in Wisconsin. It was just a shame because for the last 6 or 7 years I think there had maybe been 6 or 7 bucks shot that were younger than 2 1/2 between us and our neighbors so to see some individuals in our party go nuts this last year was too bad. But, fortunately for us where we hunt the deer population is quite large. It's not uncommon to see 10 deer per sit and sometimes 10 per group. And post season trail camera surveys look like there's still plenty of good bucks and up and coming young bucks to keep up what we had been going for. We also had a talk with some of the guys in our group and kind of told them if they pull that stuff again they'll have to find someone else to tag it because in the last three years we have been fortunate enough to take 3-4 120+ class deer in our group alone between rifle and bow season and I certainly don't think that was by accident or due to luck.

I would think 8+ years with that sort of wear on the teeth, I have discussed this topic with a veterinarian several times.

hope this helps

Lets see the pictures from 2 years ago.

Like i said I'm fairly sure it's the same deer. I can't get the pictures from the side from when we found him to load and from the side you can see more similarities than the front.

He has a big, rutty neck in those pictures, but his body doesn't look that big for a mature deer up north. His face looks old even two years ago, so it was obviously his time to go.

The whitetail in those pics are easily 6.5 to 7.5 years old. So if in fact it is the same deer that would make it 8.5 to 9.5. I do have to admit though that it's back wasn't swayed hardly at all which signifies that it was in pretty good shape at the time of those pics. But Topper is right that he was quite a bit on the light side weight wise. Teeth were probably already shot even then.

Yes I would agree that is likely the same deer and likely very old. Past his prime even in the live pictures.

I would say your 9 1/2 guess is pretty accurate.

It's hard to tell without seeing the deer in person but I did notice that the pics from 2 years ago, the bucks main beam tips don't curl in. The deer you found dead, his tips curl in quite a bit. But with 2 years of growth, it could of changed. Just something I noticed.

Like Topgun said.
 

We don't see old Bucks like that too often, and the few I've seen have been aged at over ten years. Between hunters, poachers, wolves and coyotes these guys are pretty rare.

So my guess is that he was a fine old buck who had a good run at life. May your progeny hunt his for many generations.

ATB

if you really want to know the true age, you need to send the two front incisors to a lab for cementum annuli test. Wildlife Analytical Labs in TX does it for only $25. Then you'd know definitely