Guess the age of this deer...

[Pro-Hunt]

The following deer was aged by G&P when checked in. How old do you think they aged it??

[bowonly]

I am betting that deer was 6 1/2 years old?

[bowonly]

I have a hard time believing that is what they aged that buck?

[Flatcoats]

no idea from his face. would have to see his body before he was shot. but from his antlers if i was forced to guess..... decent width, good beam length, decent mass, good tines....id say 4, maybe 5....but who knows, could be a superstud 3. i would think if he was over 5 he's be getting some super mass and maybe even shortening up a bit on the tine length

[bowonly]

Bucks dont usually start going downhill tell they are about 6 1/2 years old. Their prime age is between 4 and 5.. I think I guessed to high, I would say that deer is at least 4 1/2. His face has got a lot of grey in it, when a buck is in his prime that orange on his head is a darker orange and when he gets older turns a light orange or so I have read.

[Pro-Hunt]

19 views and only 2 guesses?! I will let it go until Monday some time and then revel the age and why I asked to start with.

[HailCall]

3.5

[Mossy Oak Man]

Show me his teeth and i could probably tell you exactly within a few months!!! Im not so sure you can tell just by just a picture. But if i were trying to be an educated man I would say 4.5.

[Cardiac]

Well.. without being able to see his full body or teeth, I'd agrre with hailcall and say 3.5 max, probably scored 130-140 too, and thats figuring he has 2-20" main beams, 20" spread, 30" total circumfrence measurments and 40-45" on tine length, and thats a liberal guess. Regardless its a great buck and one to be proud of I would love to have him, nice buck Prohunt!

[Pro-Hunt]

You are right on the score. It was just a tad over 140 gross.

[huntman025]

I'm with Hail Call, 3.5. A deer in Nebraska Can't make it past that.

[bowonly]

Ive shot many 3 1/2 year olds and that buck has pretty good mass at the bases to be that young. I am still sayen 4 to 5.

[fursniper]

I am on the 3.5 year bandwagon as well. Nice deer.

[Pro-Hunt]

He was aged at 1.5--2 years old by the G&P's when checking it in.
The younger(but not really young) guy that aged it kept second guessing himself saying it had to be older than that. An older G&P guy came over and checked it out. He proceeded to ask the younger guy what is the number one rule when aging deer? The younger guy says 'go by the teeth not by the antlers'. The older guy then asks how old is that deer. The reply was 1.5 to 2 at most. These were wardens not just some gomers they hired to check in deer.
I was surprised also at the age. When I shot him; going by the body (and antlers) I was figuring 3-3.5 year old range. He had a big body but did not have that old man sway back to him. After hearing its age I was kind of sick that I shot him as he would have grown into a monster. I seriously doubt though that he would have made it to get very old as he was shot really close to some public land that gets hunted hard.

Now for my point in asking this question..............

I think it goes to show (has also been proven in studies) that genetics is what makes a big deer; not just any deer that gets old.
This is why we all as deer hunters need to get to killing some does so we can get our herd back in line.
With all the does we have the genetically inferior deer are doing a lot of breeding which in turn makes us have a lot more little bucks running around no matter how old they get.
Before I get jumped on let me say I do not support the shooting of dink bucks. This is all about shooting doe's to get the herd ratio back in line where it should be.

[old oat]

i agree with shooting more does,but how do ya tell the inferior ones