How do you judge age on a deer by sight?

[Junkers88]

With the cooler weather we've had a rash of bucks out at the place so I've been trying to age them by visual indicators. Problem is I have no frame of reference. I mean I know when an old mature buck shows up as he's thick in neck and frame and usually sporting a pile of antler on his nugget. The ones that confuse me are the thin necked, thin legged deer with 6-8 points when their rack either doesn't clear the tips of their ears or just barely does. There is a pair out there (one 6 and one 8) that look really young and I don't think they meet the 13" inside minimum to shoot. I'm not planning on taking either one FYI. I think it'd be nice if I could tell how old they are. I know it's not important in the grand scheme of things but it's information I want to pass on to my daughter as we're out looking for deer. So what do you look for?

Richard.

[HoustonHunter]

I like visual references like this diagram. Also, put some game trail cameras out and study those as well. Eventually you'll start to understand the differences, it just takes time and experience.

[Drycreek3189]

Yeah, and don't listen to the does, they always lie about their age......

[K. Lane]

I like visual references like this diagram. Also, put some game trail cameras out and study those as well. Eventually you'll start to understand the differences, it just takes time and experience.

This is a good reference or search aging deer in the hoof at QDMA.com

Another thing I'd say after reading your post is try to ignore the head gear and focus on the body

[Double-O-Dave]

Richard:

I'm trying to learn also, but besides charts and photos, I haven't had much luck with actual instruction. I am enclosing photos of a young deer I killed in January of this year - a little button buck, as well as photos of 2 does my son killed within 30 minutes of each other during a TYHP hunt.

Where I was hunting where I killed my deer, they had a fine of $300.00 if you killed a deer less than 5 yrs. old. When I asked how you could tell the age of the deer, especially a doe, I was told "well, you'll know". Well, I didn't, and after carefully checking my deer through my binoculars, I decided it was a doe, and fair game, so I shot "her". Imagine my shock and bad feeling to discover it was actually a little button buck. I was already prepared to fish out my wallet and pay the fine when the huntmaster came to pick me up off of the stand. He listened to me as I apologized, and when I was done, he said "Well, it happens no matter how careful you are. It's easy to miss those little buttons, especially on a day like this (cloudy, misting, raining, and I shot it about an hour after it was light enough to see in the morning - maybe around7:45 a.m.). When we got back to the office, he filled out an antlerless deer tag and had me sign it, and that was it. No fine, no "strong talking to", nothing. He just watched while we cleaned and butchered the deer, and that was it.

There was actually a state biologist at the hunt where my son killed his deer, and they removed samples to check for CWD, and the lower jaws of the deer (all does) to show the young hunters how to age a deer. If I'm not mistaken, the biologist told my son his does were about 3.5 years old.

I hope this information helps. Comparing the photos to the chart provided by Houston Hunter was helpful to me.

Good luck,

Dave

[PYBUCK]

Good rule of thumb. Form a triangle from the front of the deer's eyes down to his nose and from his eyes to the bottom of the jaw then to his nose again. If the lines are equal or close, the deer is mature. Young deer have longer lines from the eyes to the nose than they do from the eyes to the bottom of their jaw.

[Rack Ranch]

This book by James Kroll is great to have around deer camp.

http://www.cspoutdoors.com/aging-and-judging-trophy-whitetails-book/

[systemnt]

neck line... younger deer the bottom of the neck is in the upper part of the brisket, and it gets lower with age... usually around 5-7 it will be at the bottom of the brisket..

that coupled with other criteria, such as head size, triangular head, legs looking shorter, rump shape..belly sag... etc.. you can 'generally' get a "sense" of a deer's maturity... but be prepared to be wrong.

Don't go by roman nose, antler size, eyes, or tarsal glands...

[RMW]

Just observing lots of deer while hunting and live and breathe everything deer all the time, like an infatuation. Then it becomes easier to put a good guesstimate of age on a whitetail.

[GarGuy]

There are some good generals posted here. that said, Every deer herd is somewhat different. I once thought I was pretty good at aging deer until I started getting years of history on particular deer with trail cameras. Thats when i learned that not only did I suck at aging from pics, The Green Screen sucked even worse than I did.

A couple times every year, I post known age deer on here just for kicks. Only a couple folks are consistently even close and its not unusual for them to miss by two years. All i can do without history is say immature, mature, or post mature.

[Hawkpuppy 1]

I have several parameters I use that seem complicated, but after years of doing it, it all happens in a matter of seconds to age on the hoof. I look at the overall body. My rules are looking at how straight line back and belly are, head size, neck size, brisket area. Young and true mature deer are the easiest, the 3 and 4 year age classes are usually the toughest to determine as they are very similar. Basically, the more sag you have in the belly and back, the older the deer. Young bucks heads and neck look like a doe. Mature deer have very blocky and squared looking heads and deep brisket areas...

[2B4Him]

There are some good generals posted here. that said, Every deer herd is somewhat different. I once thought I was pretty good at aging deer until I started getting years of history on particular deer with trail cameras. Thats when i learned that not only did I suck at aging from pics, The Green Screen sucked even worse than I did.

A couple times every year, I post known age deer on here just for kicks. Only a couple folks are consistently even close and its not unusual for them to miss by two years. All i can do without history is say immature, mature, or post mature.

Agree with this.
My first bow-killed buck was at least 5.5 years old. I know because I had been seeing him that long - he had a very distinctive facial hair pattern, I called him 'Uni-brow' for obvious reasons.
But, almost anyone else viewing a picture of him would have said he was 3.5 years old.

[drop dead fred]

I guess

[BolilloLoco]

Spend a lot of time studying deer. Don't just look at them. Know thy herd.

[Roscoe]

I think most hunters never get to lays eyes on truly mature to post mature deer to really give us that visual reference. Oldest buck I've ever seen was in my neighbor here in Georgetown. Based on how he looked, I've never seen in person or gotten a truly "old" buck on camera in over a decade where we hunt.