How old?

[Sika]

Llano county
no history

[BayouCat]

I got one of those that need to go too.

3.5

[Shane]

I'd guess 3

[muzzlebrake]

Old enough to fight and get his butt kicked. He would still make good hamburger once his testosterone subsides.

[Sika]

You guys should know by now, if I’m asking it’s probably a trick question

[Sika]

I guess no one wants to play. Deer was ground checked yesterday.

[Sika]

Twice as old as he looks on the hoof.

[GarGuy]

I'm late to the party but he has a Chew of redman

[100%TtId]

Unless you’re slinging pea gravel out of that feeder, that’s a lot of tooth wear for a deer that looks about 3-4.

Is that normal for Llano area?

[BayouCat]

Yea he definitely missed a few dental appointments. Interesting....

[Big pig]

Thanks for that quiz and photos. Really bad teeth or just really old?

BP

[Sika]

This is an old deer that looks young and an example of how no tooth or field aging technique is a substitute for actual history with the deer.

I had to do a deep dive in my photos going back to 2019 and I may have found him. We had a buck in 2019 named Drifter that started living on the neighbor’s in 2020. I had Drifter around 4 years old then and kind of a crappy 8 point. Neighbor told me he shot him but never produced a picture and they aren’t the best at identifying deer but Drifter didn’t show up on our property in 2021 or 2022 so I assumed he was gone. (Actually, we lost all of our bucks in 2022 due to the drought. I had several named deer with a lot of history that just never showed up after that summer.)
I’m not 100% sure but I believe this is him. The age is about right and the good side of the rack matches. Actually the left side was a little weird then too. Body size has shrunk but maybe because of old age? And, yes, the deer in this southwestern part of llano seem to have small heads and necks. It’s like we have Pygmy deer.

My opinion, this buck is at least 7 years old running around looking like a 3/4 yo.

[brokeno]

Surely fooled me I had him as a 4 yr old.

[ThisLadyHunts]

I have no experience aging deer but my knee jerk reaction after looking at your initial photos was that he was an older deer. Why? Because in spite of his robust appearance, his legs looked a little "rickety" to me. And while I may not know much about deer, I know a rickety leg with knobby knees when I see one.

[PondPopper]

Wow!!! Those are the head scratchers,, Seen it a few times west of Brady, bucks that age like Dolly Parton..