Shot this week, guess on age.

[kyle1974]

I think he's 7 or possibly 7.5. Definitely not 7.25 though.

[Old Blue]

My guess 5.5

[GeauxTigers]

7.5-8

[rtp]

I think he's 7 or possibly 7.5. Definitely not 7.25 though.

Love it!

[rtp]

Ok, folks here it is.....I call the shot on 20 to 30 mature bucks every year on my place. I am normally dead on in regard to their age. Sometimes I may be a year off on the older deer but havent made a mistake in 7 yrs of calling a shot. If Im unsure I error in the favor of the deer. I have been on this place for 17 yrs and am very familiar with the deer herd. Even though we have very few animals that are 6.5 this year because of the drought in 2006 which yielded very few fawns that season, I had this guy at 6.5 but thought he would actually come in older. I have no history with him and he showed in an area of the ranch we do not protein feed because as you can tell from the pic it is mostly ag land. I suspect he came from the neighbor who does not protein feed but cant know that for sure. I saw him for the first time the Sunday evening of opeining weekend and put a guy on him this past Monday. He weighed in at 192 lbs. The other two deer taken on my place this year have been a 4.5 yr old that weighed 190 and a 6.5 yr old that weighed in at 188. I called both of the other ages correctly. This guy's teeth said 4.5. I was shocked and still believe he was older than his teeth indicated. I have sent off teeth for aging before to confirm my suspicions before when this has happened but decided not to this time. He is dead and it doesn't matter. I sure wish we could see those teeth before we shoot them. I have been taking trophy bucks starting at age 5.5 but 7 yrs into the protein program, I am going to shift it to 6.5 next year and then 7.5 the following year. The age class from 2007 was off the charts numbers wise, so Im essentially going to target them the next few seasons. Oh BTW, this guy scored 150 1/8". Thanks for all the guesses guys and those that said 4.5 well you win this time around.

[TalonErickson7]

I win i win i win

[kyle1974]

Ok, folks here it is.....I call the shot on 20 to 30 mature bucks every year on my place. I am normally dead on in regard to their age. Sometimes I may be a year off on the older deer but havent made a mistake in 7 yrs of calling a shot. If Im unsure I error in the favor of the deer. I have been on this place for 17 yrs and am very familiar with the deer herd. Even though we have very few animals that are 6.5 this year because of the drought in 2006 which yielded very few fawns that season, I had this guy at 6.5 but thought he would actually come in older. I have no history with him and he showed in an area of the ranch we do not protein feed because as you can tell from the pic it is mostly ag land. I suspect he came from the neighbor who does not protein feed but cant know that for sure. I saw him for the first time the Sunday evening of opeining weekend and put a guy on him this past Monday. He weighed in at 192 lbs. The other two deer taken on my place this year have been a 4.5 yr old that weighed 190 and a 6.5 yr old that weighed in at 188. I called both of the other ages correctly. This guy's teeth said 4.5. I was shocked and still believe he was older than his teeth indicated. I have sent off teeth for aging before to confirm my suspicions before when this has happened but decided not to this time. He is dead and it doesn't matter. I sure wish we could see those teeth before we shoot them. I have been taking trophy bucks starting at age 5.5 but 7 yrs into the protein program, I am going to shift it to 6.5 next year and then 7.5 the following year. The age class from 2007 was off the charts numbers wise, so Im essentially going to target them the next few seasons. Oh BTW, this guy scored 150 1/8". Thanks for all the guesses guys and those that said 4.5 well you win this time around.

I'll reserve my comments until the lab results come back.

I never would have had him at 4.... heavy protein, or not.

[sako]

Two years ago I was in the same situation. My son shot a buck that scored 150 in a river bottom area. We thought the buck was 5 1/2 (which it had to be). At the check station, they said everything on the outside looked 5 1/2, but the teeth looked 3 1/2! I believe this is because of the soft browse in the river bottom and protein. No one on our lease had ever seen the buck before. Anyway, I did send the teeth off just for my own personal pride of being able to age deer, and it came back 5 1/2. I had the buck in your pic 4 1/2 or 5 1/2 (leaning towards 5 1/2) before reading the post. It is sometimes hard to tell just from a pic. Nice buck!

[Bowhuntinonly]

Lab

I read an article that said on several known age bucks the lab was only correct about 60% of the time. Aging deer is hard and not an exact science. None the less a very good looking deer that appeared to be mature.