Deer age

[the blur]

Do you ever have your deer aged ?   I often wonder how old they are.   It's easy when they are spikes, or button's, but the older ones are harder to tell.

[dhuntley2]

My brother in law shot a decent 8 point in the foothills of the ADKs, got it aged it was 6 1/2. So much cover and territory where their camp is the deer have lots of places to hide and get old.

[landtracdeerhunter]

Biologist try to age deer by the wear of their teeth, give or take a few years. I don't hold much faith in their calculations when a deer gets up in age.

[the blur]

What other method is there ?    a button is 6 months.  A spike is 1.5 years.   A doe, I have no idea.

[nyantler]

The best way to age a deer is by taking the root of a tooth, preparing a very thin stained slice, and counting the rings of cementum under a microscope – just like counting the rings on a tree.

[Doc]

The only reliable way of aging a deer is a process called Cementum Annuli Method. This is a forensic laboratory method that is absolutely 100% accurate. What they do is to take a root of a tooth and prepare a very thin, stained, slice and looking at that under a microscope, they count the rings of cementum just like aging a tree.

 

Check out this link: http://www.deerage.com/

[nyantler]

The only reliable way of aging a deer is a process called Cementum Annuli Method. This is a forensic laboratory method that is absolutely 100% accurate. What they do is to take a root of a tooth and prepare a very thin, stained, slice and looking at that under a microscope, they count the rings of cementum just like aging a tree.

 

Check out this link: http://www.deerage.com/

 

LOL .. we must have been typing and uploading our posts at the same time...!!

[ATbuckhunter]

You could look at the teeth when you harvest it. I used to watch a lot of hunting shows so I know up to 3 1/2, 4 1/2 by looking at body. Once you get to 4 1/2 your going to need to send the teeth to a lab to tell the age.

[First-light]

We shot a doe on LI last year that was aged at 7.5 she was maybe 120 lbs face looked old almost like a lama? lol she ate real good though!!

[biggamefish]

Come on everybody knows you just look at the rack and can tell exactly how old they are. Watching hunting shows is a good one too.

[Five Seasons]

I think 1.5 and even 2.5's aren't to difficult to age if you know the area well. Sure there are always some freaks (both good and bad) but we've hunted our areas so long that it's not to hard to tell. It's the 3.5+ that gets hard I think

[Lawdwaz]

I try and have the DEC in Buffalo age any deer that is notable for one reason or another.  Body size or a bigger than average rack could be a reason for this.  Unfortunately I've never aged any of the bigger doe I've killed.  That would be interesting to see.

 

In the last few years I've been lucky to kill some good bucks and had them aged and even kept the right side of their jaw bone for future comparisons to a QDM information sheet and info on the web...............

 

 

My oldest bucks jaw bone (5.5yrs old) on the bottom and a 1.5yrs old bucks above it.................

 

 

Another view..................

 

 

The QDM fact sheet.............

 

 

I think I got the QDM sheet at the very informative QDM meeting last January that was held in Honeoye Falls NY and put on by the fine folks Greater Rochester Southern Tier Chapter of the QDM.

 

Considering 99.5% (grin) of all bucks killed are 1.5 years old I've always been interested in their age or more importantly their DOD.

[sampotter]

Tooth wear has been proven to be wildly inaccurate.

[Lawdwaz]

Tooth wear has been proven to be wildly inaccurate.

"Wildly inaccurate" is a bit of a stretch. It is an accepted practice and will be until game departments come up with enough cash to have all their samples sent for analysis.

I'd like to send mine out for aging but this method is just fine for me too. I'm thinking the tooth wear method is quite a bit more accurate than the folks that look at a trail cam picture or even a dead deer and tell me how old he was. You know, "look at that Roman nose, he has to be 4.5yrs old". What a joke...........

Most people have never looked into a deer's mouth in their lifetime and probably never will.

[dbHunterNY]

aging by looking at teeth is pretty easy up to 2.5 years old.  then not by replacement but by wear, you could tell if it was say 2.5-4.5 or 5.5+.  some days I don't get a jaw bone wrong and then the next I won't get one right.  I will say that if you combine tooth wear, limited history, and several trail cam pics you can come within 1 year of a bucks age.  you've got to look at the whole picture and not just one physical characteristic.  cementum analysis is the way to go.  I haven't done it yet though.  I'm not paying over $100 for someone to tell me the deer I shot AROUND HERE is 2.5 or 3.5 years old.

[Terry]

If you look at the third tooth in the lower jaw, you can tell if it's above or below two years of age. You have count the crest. Two crest equals 2 or older, three crest means its below 2. Other than that it's just an educated guess.

[DROpTINE]

I look at the mouth of every deer taken off my property and think I have aged them pretty well. But I take all factors in when trying to age the deer including body size, facial structure, teeth, foot size and history of other deer taken on my property that were aged by others (DEC/Butchers/Taxidermist).

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[phade]

The only reliable way of aging a deer is a process called Cementum Annuli Method. This is a forensic laboratory method that is absolutely 100% accurate. What they do is to take a root of a tooth and prepare a very thin, stained, slice and looking at that under a microscope, they count the rings of cementum just like aging a tree.

 

Check out this link: http://www.deerage.com/

 

 

Whoah, whoah, here. Let's slow the roll on some of the statements. CA is by far the better aging method - no question on that. But to say it is absolutely positively 100% accurate is misleading. While the technique is again, by far, the best we can do, it is not infallible. So as much to say that accuracy in most NA game animals ranges between 70-95%, varying greatly on species and even some particulars with certain species and locale.

 

So, let's not portend it to be accurate all of the time; it is not.

Edited December 16, 2013 by phade

[sampotter]

There is a clear tendency for east coast hunters to wishfully think their bucks are older than they are. I've heard the "grey face", "big head", "roman nose", etc more times than I can count. It seems like in the Midwest a lot of guys like to think that bucks are younger than they are.

[Terry]

Agreed. Every deer a guy I work with shoots is at least 5 to him.

I have argued to I am blue in the face that you can't age a deer with a 100% accuracy. Especially by weight. I know guys who have a widow of about 20lbs that they age deer in.

Edited December 16, 2013 by troutfisher13111

[sampotter]

For the most part, if you see a nice buck that has 4" plus bases in NY and you say he's a 4 year old, then you are going to be within a year of age 90% of the time. There aren't many bucks in NY that live past 5.

[G-Man]

Best way I have found is by pictures, had a friend shoot a buck and took it to taxidermist and DEC, they both told him 2.5 Problem is i gave him the trailcam photos from prior year.and current year he killed it. So he simple lay them on table and said well these are from last year! Then the age went to 3.5

[A Sportsman]

For those of you who go through the trouble of aging deer, how often do you find youself surprised by the results?

A buddy of mine shot a 6 yo doe (aged by dec) from long island few yrs ago that was under 100 lbs dressed. I would have never guessed that old.

Also my cousin shot a big 7 ptr last year in catskills that was 23 inches inside spread. And real massy. Deer only weighed in the 150s dressed. That one was aged at 8.5 by taxidermist. I was shocked body wasn't bigger.

And this year in same areea of catskills the buck I shot was an 8 ptr, without much mass. The face was all gray and old looking and it dressed out at 153. Looking at rack I would say 2.5 (maybe 3.5) but judging by the face and weight I would say possibly older. Strange.

[Five Seasons]

I try and have the DEC in Buffalo age any deer that is notable for one reason or another. Body size or a bigger than average rack could be a reason for this. Unfortunately I've never aged any of the bigger doe I've killed. That would be interesting to see.

I agree that aging some of the bigger doe would be interesting.

Edited December 16, 2013 by Belo

[Five Seasons]

For those of you who go through the trouble of aging deer, how often do you find youself surprised by the results?

A buddy of mine shot a 6 yo doe (aged by dec) from long island few yrs ago that was under 100 lbs dressed. I would have never guessed that old.

Also my cousin shot a big 7 ptr last year in catskills that was 23 inches inside spread. And real massy. Deer only weighed in the 150s dressed. That one was aged at 8.5 by taxidermist. I was shocked body wasn't bigger.

And this year in same areea of catskills the buck I shot was an 8 ptr, without much mass. The face was all gray and old looking and it dressed out at 153. Looking at rack I would say 2.5 (maybe 3.5) but judging by the face and weight I would say possibly older. Strange.

8.5 is probably on his downturn.