How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

[Squirrelhunter91]

I don't know about the records but it all really depends on hunting pressure, predators, climate, the overall health of the herd, food sources etc...

[buckee]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

I read somewhere, that all things considered, with no predation, no road kill likelihood, and no hunting pressure, a deer can live past 20 years. Hard to believe, but that is what I read somewhere.

I know there was a buck we were after over on one of the small islands here, that used to live down in this swamp. We tried to get him for years and years, but could never close the deal on him. We even did a well set-up drive one day and he managed to get past 5 guys, with no one firing a shot.

I hunted that buck for a good 10 years, so I have no idea how old he really was.

There are no predators on this island, and the section we hunted was on the south end of the island where there were no roads also.

[fisherguy]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

I read an article a few years ago, but i can't remember where. This is more or less wht it said. Does barring getting shot, starving in a bad climate etc. can live past 10 in not particularly rare cases, and close to 20 in very rare cases(perhaps older but extremely, extremely rarely). Bucks the span is shorter due to rutting, and physiological differences. ( think it was saying 12-15 or over is really old). These were thou outside ages in general, but really freak cases probably happen. The big limiting factor the article said was that even if the body was fine, tooth wear would cause slow starvation, and that depending on food sources it is rare for teeth to be efficient after approximately 12-14 years. I think i remember those numbers right, but this was an article that may or may not have been particularly accurate. I will try to find it.

[craig mack]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

I'm not sure how old a buck can live to be, especially with the stress of the rut year after year and predatation(spelling). But where I hunt in the western U.P. we shot quite a few does over 6 years old (according to the DNR). The oldest one I shot last year they aged her at 10 years old. She was gray in the face and all over her body.

[JamesVee]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

We had fed a buck for consecutive years that we last estimated his age to be atleast 10.5 years old. We moved that spring. He could very well have lived longer. We never heard of anyone shooting him.

Also, my girlfriend killed her first deer this last year. It was an old doe, estimated to be between 9 and 12 years old.

[Squirrelhunter91]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

That doe must have been the smartest deer in the woods.

[muggs]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

I read somewhere, sometime that 7 years old is the prime age for a whitetail, another words, when they are at their full potential. After that, they go lose antler mass every year.

I saw a post in here of a really old mount, someones grandfather shot, he said the deer was 15 years old if I remember correctly.

[Leo]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

You are very hard pressed to harvest any buck over 2.5yrs old.

Truth be known most hunters would be shocked to know the real age of their trophies. As far as I know once a deer gets older than 3 1/2 it is darn near impossible to assess it's age based on tooth wear.

[JamesVee]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

You're wrong Leo. Now you know.

[Leo]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

Nice deer James.

Now respectfully explain to me how you know for a fact those deer are older than 4 1/2? Did you have the jawbones pulled and aged? Were these easily identifiable deer you hunted for several seasons?

It's true that deer antler development peaks around 5 or 6. But a big rack does not necessarily mean the animal has peaked.

Keep in mind Milo Hanson's world record typical Whitetail was aged at between 3 and 4. So antler size is not a true indicator of a bucks age.

[craig mack]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

I know some people dont think that tooth wear is a good way of telling a deers age but I hunt in the western U.P. of Michigan and I take my deer to the Dnr office in the area to have my deer aged. The area is all National Forest land and the deer in the area all have pretty much the same food sources so I feel pretty confident they can tell the age of a deer by tooth wear.

[Leo]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

That's exactly right Craig the rate of wear depends very much on the food sources.

After the 3rd year all of a deer's teeth have erupted through the gumline. From that point jawbone aging is based on wear patterns for the area the deer was taken in.

[JamesVee]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

Thanks Leo. I didnt' mean to come off as a jerk in my original post, but I didnt' have the time to explain myself better. I will let you know that all of the deer that I have shot have been aged, and many of them I have watched for consecutive years. I will be the first to say, that you can not age a deer by it's antler size. With that being said, here are a few links I found in regards to tooth wear and aging deer.

WI DNR Page One of Aging Deer

USGS Site

Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

......and the list goes on.

[Guest NS_HUNTER]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

The oldest deer I,ve seen was a buck taken by my father.The DNR aged him at 7 1/2.He dressed 302 lbs and very fat. His rack didn,t match his age or health as it was a 7 pointer that grossed 115.

[buckee]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

Leo has a good point there.

The lifespan of wild deer is highly variable, dependent on a number of factors.One of the main factors, (aside from predation, hard winters and hunting pressure) is their available food source in any given area. Deer that forage on more woody foods tend to grind down their teeth quickly, they literally die of starvation when they lose the ability to properly grind their foods (although they are otherwise perfectly healthy). Hunting and predator pressure are significant and also highly variable. That being said, the published data indicate that the record longevity for both captive and wild deer is just over 20 years.

Axis deer

In the wild, Axis deer live 9-13 years, though in captivity they may reach an age of 18-22 years.

Fallow deer

In captivity, fallow deer may reach an age of maximum 25 years, in the wild their lifespan is 11-15 years. Fallow deer can have an average life span of 20 to 25 years

Roe deer

Lifespan- maximum 18 years.Roe Deer have a lifespan of 10 to 12 years, although some have been recorded living until 18 years old.

Black-tailed deer have a lifespan of about ten years in the wild, but could live twice that age all things considered (predation, mild winters, human encroachment

The oldest captive Dwarf musk deer (M. berezovskii) from China had a lifespan of 20 years (Yakima,1993).The average lifespan of captive bred is 2.4 years. The average lifespan of wild caught captive is about 7 years.

Whitetail deer

Lifespan. White Tailed Deer : Up to 20 years but usually around 10

Mule deer

The average lifespan of deer in the wild is 10 years, but they have lived to 25 years in captivity.

[buckee]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

After all of the whitetail's permanent teeth have come in, biologists look for the amount of wear on the molars, which lose about 1 millimetre of height each year. The height of the tooth above the gum line on all three molars is used to determine deer age.

This is not an exact science, even though most wildlife biologists wouldn't admit to that...LOL. It's an educated guesstimate at best.

Deer that forage on more woody foods tend to grind down their teeth quickly, they literally die of starvation when they lose the ability to properly grind their foods (although they are otherwise perfectly healthy).

According to this information, food plots will not only keep a deer herd healthy and produce larger antlered deer, but also my prolong their lifespan by as much as 10 years plus.

In order to age a deer properly, a biologist would have to have other information based on that particular animals home base and year round food source.

example:

1-farmland deer, basic crop etc, etc

2-deciduous forest, alpine forest, evergreen or swamp...etc, etc

3-mountain deer, eastern forest, western forest, mid-west plains, etc, etc

And the list would go on

Pretty interesting subject guys. Sure got me thinking

[Canuck2]

Re: How Old Can a Whitetailed Buck Live?

With the tremendous hunting pressure that some areas receive, particularly in the east, deer are often really bucking the odds if they make it beyond 2 1/2 years old. Although it seems I'm running into hunters everywhere I go sometimes, I guess the competition around here is fairly light by comparison.

The oldest whitetail buck I've shot was 10 1/2 years old and the oldest mule deer buck was 11 1/2. I've also shot several other whitetails 5 years old or older. These ages were determined by the provincial wildlife branch by grinding down a submitted incisor and analyzing the growth rings, the most consistently accurate method of aging deer. Unfortunately, the program has been essentially discontinued and we can no longer get good data like that.