Age these Deer

[browning2480]

How old do you think these bucks are? Looking for some opinions to see if I am close on what I am guessing.

 

[elkguide]

3.5

 

[satchamo]

3.5 - great deer still. The bodies are healthy but the racks lack much in the form of mass that really comes on around 4.5. Also their neck/brisket junction still has a slight bump and the backs don’t have a ton of sway. I’d still shoot either of them and be happy though

**edit - I think the top one could be 4.5… he’s got a bigger body than the bottom one but camera angles can be deceiving

 

[rookieforever33]

Top 3.5
Bottom 2.5
Maybe. Hard to tell from 1 picture

 

[rookieforever33]

How old do you think on this one? I have him on camera in December last year. Hoping he is still around.

 

[MTtrout]

Kill the top one then show us a picture of its lower jaw.

 

[browning2480]

For reference this is in Southern Missouri so we don't get big crop fed bodies like the guys up North do. I was thinking 4.5 on the first one and 3.5 on the second.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

Honestly, they could be anywhere from 3.5 - 7.5 and until they are harvested and you send in their front 2 Incisors to a lab for cementum Age Analysis all you'll get is pure speculation. I used to guess based of body and antlers and you could usually get within a year but once we started sending all our teeth in to a lab there was always a few deer or elk that we were way off.

Matson's Laboratory - Experts In Deer Teeth Aging

We use cementum age analysis to age your game. We are the leading experts in deer teeth aging and aging other mammalian game species.

matsonslab.com

 

[browning2480]

Yeah we are aging them if we kill them this year.

 

[Skerhunter]

The best way is to compare them to known aged deer for that area! It’s hard for me to judge deer from another area on age vs general score.

The deer pictured I would age at 4.5 for the 1st one and 3.5 for the second one solely comparing their bodies. A side profile pic would help narrow it down!

For my area general rules I follow - 3.5 year olds don’t have g2s and 3s at same height exceeding 9” generally not wider than tips of ears (16-18”) and noticeably shorter main beams (no where close to tip of nose length). Bodies are still small. These deer top out in the 130s-140s. A big tell is they will still be buddies with similar sized deer and walk around together until peak rut.

4.5 year olds have bigger bodies but not tanks yet their g2s and 3s can now be 10+”. Beam length is “long” but maybe short of nose length. Width will typically well outside their ears by now - 18”+. Normal deer will be 140s-160s maybe bigger. These deer are solo and won’t be moving with other bucks past end of September.

5.5 year olds and up are obvious. Huge bodies compared to all other deer. I do not see “sway backs” so that never works. My deer “peak” at 5. Beams are long typically nose length, noticeably heavy and usually 18+” wide. These are your 140”-150” 4 points, 150”-180” 5/6 points and deer up to 200”+. These are the deer everyone gets trail cam pics of but never see in the daylight .

Beyond that I need historical info to have an idea of exact age because they start losing inches by 6.