Aging mule deer bucks!

[RobertD]

Deer 4 a nice young buck no doubt, 3.5

 

[rogerthat]

This thread is a joke. Aging based on looking at photos would be very difficult if not impossible. Want to accurately know your age? Send in a tooth to matsons. End of story. If you don’t have history with a buck for many years then about all you will be able to tell is mature vs immature based on a photo. No way your telling a 5.5 from a 7.5

 

[rogerthat]

Post up the boiled out jaws for tooth wear aging. That would have some chance of being a little more accurate.

 

[Valley1320]

Deer 4

4.5 face just doesn't look real grayed out like a old buck does. But yet I am lost wonder if he's not a lil older than just 4.5.. but that's what my gut says to go with

 

[Valley1320]

This thread is a joke. Aging based on looking at photos would be very difficult if not impossible. Want to accurately know your age? Send in a tooth to matsons. End of story. If you don’t have history with a buck for many years then about all you will be able to tell is mature vs immature based on a photo. No way your telling a 5.5 from a 7.5

Hey its fun to guess and see how close.

 

[rogerthat]

Hey its fun to guess and see how close.

Good point. I was specifically addressing the accuracy of the methodology. I am not a fun hater. Carry on

 

[RobertD]

Are you in Texas? Just wondering, doubt there are too many places where mule deer and cotton fields coexist.

 

[antlerradar]

Deer 4

Guessing age from one years worth of pictures is a shot in the dark, but regardless of age that buck is one cool buck with lots of character.

 

[bonedogg]

I'll be your huckleberry...... 4.5-5.5 on deer 4

 

[ImBillT]

This thread is a joke. Aging based on looking at photos would be very difficult if not impossible. Want to accurately know your age? Send in a tooth to matsons. End of story. If you don’t have history with a buck for many years then about all you will be able to tell is mature vs immature based on a photo. No way your telling a 5.5 from a 7.5

This isn’t about nailing it down to the year. This is actually about seeing how what hunters see before putting the animal down ends up lining up with what tooth wear, and Matson Labs say. I will be sending teeth to Matson Labs fairly soon. Believe it or not, they do not seem to be the be all end all in aging. All of the posted deer have been aged by a biologist using tooth wear.

Now the reason I want to see how what hunters see lines up with biological data is because I want to see if it’s at all possible to make age based decisions before pulling the trigger. I’m especially interested to see if anyone looking at the pictures happens to guess fairly consistently. If so, we could all benefit from whatever characteristics they’re spotting. Again, I don’t expect it to be possible to mail it down to the year, but if someone consistently got in the ball park of youngish, primish, and oldish, their insight would be valuable.

If someone just got a lot of them in correct placement relative to each other I would be quite impressed. We’re just at four deer now. It will be over double that.

 

[ImBillT]

Post up the boiled out jaws for tooth wear aging. That would have some chance of being a little more accurate.

Can do on some. Others the jaws have been lost, but they were all aged by a biologist looking at the jaws. I can send teeth from the Euro’s to Matson Labs on the ones missing jaws and for which I’m not sure which jaws belong to, and will send teeth from the jaws on the four jaws that I still know which belong to which.

I may post one that was not aged, but which I can send a tooth from the euro in. I have not decided if I want to post that deer. Maybe when I send teeth in I’ll post that one.

 

[ImBillT]

Are you in Texas? Just wondering, doubt there are too many places where mule deer and cotton fields coexist.

Mule deer and cotton fields exist in TX, NM, AZ, OK, and CO for sure, but probably a few other states as well.

 

[ImBillT]

Guessing age from one years worth of pictures is a shot in the dark, but regardless of age that buck is one cool buck with lots of character.

Guessing exact age, I 110% agree. I don’t even think with most deer that you can track from 1.5-2.5, and therefore you could think it’s a 2.5yr old deer when it’s a completely different deer that is 3.5. Once they are 3.5 or older, then I do think you can USUALLY keep track of a specific deer from year to year. I’m actually quite skeptical about that also. I think the only way to get it exact WITH 100% CERTAINTY is with an ear tag. This thread is more to figure out if there are people out that that can consistently get within the ballpark of biological methods by looking at a deer. I will also be comparing two biological methods on these deer in the near future.

If it turns out that no one here can even get it in the ball park most of the time, then I question the value of trying to make age based decisions when pulling the trigger. If you’re usually wrong, then why let that impact your choices?

If it turns out that no one here consistently gets in the ball park of either biological method, AND that both biological methods don’t get in the ball park with each other, then I will find that VERY interesting.

 

[rogerthat]

Guessing exact age, I 110% agree. I don’t even think with most deer that you can track from 1.5-2.5, and therefore you could think it’s a 2.5yr old deer when it’s a completely different deer that is 3.5. Once they are 3.5 or older, then I do think you can USUALLY keep track of a specific deer from year to year. I’m actually quite skeptical about that also. I think the only way to get it exact WITH 100% CERTAINTY is with an ear tag. This thread is more to figure out if there are people out that that can consistently get within the ballpark of biological methods by looking at a deer. I will also be comparing two biological methods on these deer in the near future.

If it turns out that no one here can even get it in the ball park most of the time, then I question the value of trying to make age based decisions when pulling the trigger. If you’re usually wrong, then why let that impact your choices?

If it turns out that no one here consistently gets in the ball park of either biological method, AND that both biological methods don’t get in the ball park with each other, then I will find that VERY interesting.

I am usually in the ball park but I’m using multiple years of observation coupled with the visual quality and traits of an older deer. I think anything else will be a good guess. And yes some will be better than others on the guess but I can post up some deer that would fool a very well trained eye. Deer are all unique just like humans. Just as we humans don’t all age out at the same rate it’s the same for deer.

 

[ImBillT]

I have proven to myself that I can't get in the ballpark, but I rarely see the same deer year after year.

I definitely don’t see the same deer year to year. Even hunting the same unit 3 out of 4 years, I’ve only seen a deer I think I saw previously a few times, and not 100% certain.

Some of the tooth wear aging has really been nowhere close to what I was thinking before I the biologist aged them. After comparing jaws to charts I can find, I have to agree with the biologist on all but one deer. While there are often a few indications that the jaw might be aged a year older or younger, if I had to pick a specific age, I would have to agree with the biologist on all but the one.

 

[ImBillT]

Deer 5

 

[RobertD]

Mule deer and cotton fields exist in TX, NM, AZ, OK, and CO for sure, but probably a few other states as well.

California. Doubt there are any others. My question was really trying to get at whether or not these were Texas mule deer, of if they were from multiple different areas

 

[Carl 9.3x62]

Deer 5

I'd say younger, maybe 4.5? Antlers don't look massive enough or knarly enough, if that is such a thing.

 

[ImBillT]

California. Doubt there are any others. My question was really trying to get at whether or not these were Texas mule deer though

They came from multiple states. I’m not disclosing which state any of them came from.

 

[rogerthat]

I definitely don’t see the same deer year to year. Even hunting the same unit 3 out of 4 years, I’ve only seen a deer I think I saw previously a few times, and not 100% certain.

Some of the tooth wear aging has really been nowhere close to what I was thinking before I the biologist aged them. After comparing jaws to charts I can find, I have to agree with the biologist on all but one deer. While there are often a few indications that the jaw might be aged a year older or younger, if I had to pick a specific age, I would have to agree with the biologist on all but the one.

My experience has been in the field biologist tooth wear aging has been very inaccurate. I live in Montana so lab aging them is very accurate. The bios don’t have a great track record and that’s not just fwp bios. If they were able to view/study the boiled out jaw their accuracy would increase but deer aged at check stations are typically not accurate