Teeth Aging Texas Hill Country Deer

[EZ-10RANCH]

I'm going
7
4
10

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Same here

[kyle1974]

Teeth Aging Texas Hill Country Deer

This thread got me thinking yesterday. I wonder how much a deer's diet really changes the wear on their teeth. East Texas deer tooth wear vs South Texas teeth wear vs Hill Country teeth wear. I bet they are all quite different.

I see different wear on same aged deer from the north side to the south side of our lease.



north side has more sand in the soil, south and west is more clay/loam.

we see old (7+) year old deer in the western and southern areas that have wear like the 5 year olds do up north. pretty wild.

[slayr]

[quote=buck_wild;15396367]

Hmmm, I "BETTER"? Your post made me chuckle a little.


Yes as in if you are planning to tell us the ages, it better be based on an exact known age, not some guess as to when the deer was 2 yrs and then someone tracked that deer for 6 yrs etc therefore the buck is x age old.
OTHERWISE, this is a total waste of time and energy. There, is that BETTER ?

Why you so angry?

[SaltwaterSlick]

I see different wear on same aged deer from the north side to the south side of our lease.

north side has more sand in the soil, south and west is my clay. we see old (7+) year old deer that have wear like the 5 year olds do up north. pretty wild.

How you documenting that Kyle? You haven't had that place that long??

[kyle1974]

Teeth Aging Texas Hill Country Deer

How you documenting that Kyle? You haven't had that place that long??

with cemetum annuli testing to cross reference. Which still isn't 100%, but it seems to be more accurate than just guessing based on tooth wear.

This deer had a jaw that showed wear around 5 and the CA test said 7.

[jshouse]

with cemetum annuli testing to cross reference. Which still isn't 100%, but it seems to be more accurate than just guessing based on tooth wear.

This deer had a jaw that showed wear around 5 and the CA test said 7.

he looks old..great deer

[JWF]

I’m not great at aging teeth but want to see what the answers are

[Chance Love]

So a lot of y'all know me, and many newcomers probably do not. I've "been around the block" when it comes to this deer stuff. That's not to sound cocky, just confident. And on these deer I am VERY confident on their ages. By the "book" I would age these jaws at 6, 4, 8+. And I think that "book" needs to be thrown in the trash. Here we go:

Deer #1:



We named this deer "Tank" back in 2015, or maybe even 2014. We figured him at least a 5 year old back then. Giant body, giant neck, during the rut his hocks would run down his legs, the whole bit. There is no way he was any younger than 5. Let's be conservative and say that was 2015. That would make him at least 10 this year. This year he had one of the heaviest bodies we have killed, and had the biggest neck of any deer I have ever seen in our area. And he had his best horn year ever. He also ate a LOT of protein every year since we started watching him.

Deer #2:



We named this deer "Splits" back in 2015. Extremely easy deer to keep track of. Like Deer #1, there simply is NO WAY he was any younger than 5 back then, and I'm leaning toward 6. Giant neck, running hocks, ect., ect. But for arguments sake let's go the conservative route and call him 5 back then. That makes him at least 10 this year. Horn wise be blew up this year and was 20" bigger than he had ever been. And in all those years we can't recall even getting one pic of him eating protein. Ever.

Deer #3:



This was on a friend's place, but I found it interesting. This deer was marked as a fawn...17 years ago.



I have heard so much over the years about tooth wear aging. I know there are lots of places that are preaching it as gospel. And guys get kicked off for shooting something that has young looking teeth. That's a shame. I used to buy into it as well, 20 years ago. Now teeth are simply fun to look at but we realize there is no significance with them. There is no substitute for history. I've heard the arguments for diet affecting wear, and maybe it does. But it does not correlate with these examples. Actually these show just the opposite, the protein hog shows a lot more wear than the deer that never ate protein. Both lived in the same area of the ranch their entire lives. Both were even killed at the same corn feeder. I have also given up on the idea that area makes a difference. I know trusted guys in the hill country, west Texas, east Texas, and down South that all say the same things. When you notice a buck at 3, watch him for 5 or 6 years, kill him, and the teeth show 4...it makes you wonder. When it happens time and time again, on multiple ranches, multiple areas of the state, with every kind of management practices you can imagine, it brings you to my conclusion that teeth don't mean a hill of beans.

Just a fun little exercise that hopefully will help some to see that tooth wear aging is an absolute waste of time. There is no substitute for history.

[JWF]

Awesome info. Thank you for taking the time to post it all.


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[JBJTX81]

I wonder how old this guy was based on your 2 10yr old and 17 yr old teeth

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[GarGuy]

Chance my east tx experience is exactly like yours. Always older than the tooth wear charts say. Always

[jshouse]

can we see cam pics of the bucks?

[Benno]

Interesting, thanks for posting.

[Capt.Brown]

Those are some OLD deer, so at 5 & 6 years old they didn't have there best set of horns? And they didn't go down hill they got better?????

[Mtltx]

Those are some OLD deer, so at 5 & 6 years old they didn't have there best set of horns? And they didn't go down hill they got better?????

Ha!!