Aging deer using more than a guess.


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I've searched the forum for some posts on aging deer by their teeth. I've had people tell me some crazy guess at the age of a deer and I don't think they really know. I only know a little about aging deer so I've just kept quiet. Well I think that this year is going to be different. I'm reading up and I'm sure I'll have questions soon to come. If anyone has jaw pictures or links, feel free to send them.

Good luck to everyone this season,

Dan

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Thanks for all the links everyone. Basically, I'm looking to see if I can age deer, because I'm curious about the age versus antler growth in my area. We're usually shooting small racked bucks opposed to spikes, thinking that they're 2 1/2 yr old deer. However, I'm wondering if some are only 1 1/2 yr olds with good potential. Every now and then a big one 130" buck is taken close by and I'm curious as to how long it's taking our bucks to get there. Are they 5 1/2-6 1/2yrs old or only 3 1/2 yrs old and will get even bigger? That'll help me set reasonable goals for my area. So far it hasn't been too difficult to age deer up to 2.5-3.5 yrs old but after that I honestly haven't got a clue. lol

- Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

dbHunterNY,

I would like to suggest the following linked article on judging deer on the hoof. It will give you some body characteristics to look for in helping make better judgements on a deer's age before the shot. Verifying the age after the kill is still a good idea to help you gauge your ability and make adjustments to you criteria interpretation but does little to help you with improving the age structure of your herd. By no means should antler size be weighted high on the list for determining age-class.

http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=85

Hope this will help.

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