Deer teeth age thoughts

[GarGuy]

If that jawbone would have come off a buck from my ranch he’d be 10+ years old. Aging deer by teeth wear is nearly always wrong and can be as much as 50% on older deer.

If we killed that jaw here, it would be from a 10 plus year old deer

[PondPopper]

8+ based on my experience and research. Could easily be 9 or10.

[jjaimes]

8 years old I’ve kill 2 8 year olds and this is what their jaw represents. They’re really dished out

[Landrover]

Good to learn that aging by teeth is far from the gold standard. Cementum Anuli is quite the process as I was just looking at their website. They even admit that the southern region of North America is much tougher to determine age of wild animals.

[Drycreek3189]

Caser Kleberg Research did a pretty extensive 10 year study on this subject on this from known age deer in parts of south Texas.

What I took from it:

6 Biologist only agreed on jawbone ages 19% of the time.
They were right 49% of the time.
On the positive when they gave them a +- 1 year age variance they were correct 86% of the time.

Cementum Annuli was correct 61% of the time.
When given +- 1 year variance it went to 92% accuracy.

The percent correct for deer aged 6 and older dropped below 35% for tooth wear. While Cementum Annuli stayed above 60%.

This right here !

[James]

Hey Jim-
‘nice deer buddy. Lots of reasons I think that deer is 8+.
1. I hunt just south of you as you know and our deer resemble these pictures bodywise. I wish I could see his hooves and his knees but I’d bet it’s not even necessary.
2. I agree with Chance in that jawbone aging is horrible methodology for pinpointing a deers exact age. You can definitely identify a fawn, and a Deer that has his full molar set and potentially determine a mature deer vs post mature but I don’t think you can pinpoint it. On our lease it has been beat in our brains that the teeth are the “god” measurement and while it appears to be a close factor, we have learned that annual pictures and “knowing your herd” can disappoint even the boldest tooth experts.
3. You mentioned drought however I’m just south of you and we had great rains most of the year except for a small time in summer. Otherwise it was awesome. Maybe it wasn’t as wet just north of us.
4. Do you know the real answer here? You’ve been on that place longer than this deer has been alive. Wondering if you’re just trying to give us another lesson here.
5. Regardless of what that stupid jawbone says…congrats buddy

OP - by the book I’d age at 6+. As most have said, they’re usually older than teeth say.

Rusty - what’s the saying? Can’t teach an old dog new tricks…

[jdavidson]

I'm not seeing where he went downhill? Actually looks bigger to me dead than in the '21 pics. Am I missing something?

long answer
In 21 pic he would’ve weighed 200+
when he died he weighed 155
I completely understand 21 pic was November and pre rut…and that dead picture was post rut
Our deer don’t loose 50lbs during rut. So I’m assuming he was down 20-30lbs going in to the romance game

[Chance Love]

long answer
In 21 pic he would’ve weighed 200+
when he died he weighed 155
I completely understand 21 pic was November and pre rut…and that dead picture was post rut
Our deer don’t loose 50lbs during rut. So I’m assuming he was down 20-30lbs going in to the romance game

I've never heard anyone use "downhill" in reference to body size, only antler size. And his horns look bigger now than they did back in '21. Do you have a pic of his body from November of this year?

[jdavidson]

I've never heard anyone use "downhill" in reference to body size, only antler size. And his horns look bigger now than they did back in '21. Do you have a pic of his body from November of this year?

I do not.
I hunted this deers area 20 or more times this year… specifically looking for him…never saw him until January 14th

[Miller]

Our Laredo deer tend to drop down right around 160#'s when they are 8 and older. Tine length tends to go down and mass increases, usually scoring close to the same +-5". Sometimes moving some of the inches to new points or kickers. For whatever that is worth.

[Top Of Texas]

Those teeth say 6.5 years old due to criteria pointed out by Chance and Sika - first molar dished. Regardless of the deer's actual years, there are mountains of evidence that reveal bucks peak in antler growth when they have 1 to 2 dished molars on well managed or lightly hunted properties. Thus - well done! And no, I wouldn't expect that to be downhill.

One of the big things that has exacerbated the skepticism in tooth wear is people declaring ages when they really don't understand the methodology. This is demonstrated in this post. And where Huntergirl pointed out 3 different ages on the same deer. Much (not all) of the research done on tooth aging also shows a lack of consistent knowledge in methodology. The teeth may miss the actual age by a year, but everyone should miss it the same.

I'll have a YouTube video on the subject of aging deer coming out sometime this year. Been chipping away at it for a long while. Numerous interviews of researchers, managers, hunters, review of scientific literature and data sets, and discussions on applications and limitations. Hat-tips to Chance and Sika for their participation!

[brokeno]

When they get really old they look short and squatty. I would say 8 plus by that picture. If he’s was on a protein and cottonseed diet his teeth will definitely show less wear. The drought the last couple of years really caused him to lose lots of inches.

[PeytonGriffin]

Plenty old enough, nice buck!

[Nova]

Caser Kleberg Research did a pretty extensive 10 year study on this subject on this from known age deer in parts of south Texas.

What I took from it:

6 Biologist only agreed on jawbone ages 19% of the time.
They were right 49% of the time.
On the positive when they gave them a +- 1 year age variance they were correct 86% of the time.

Cementum Annuli was correct 61% of the time.
When given +- 1 year variance it went to 92% accuracy.

The percent correct for deer aged 6 and older dropped below 35% for tooth wear. While Cementum Annuli stayed above 60%.

and they also said browse or pelleted feed didn't make much of a difference.