aging a deer by tooth wear/lab test

[Huntingfool]

I know a lot of folks try to age their deer in these two manners. With the advent of protein, I believe many deer do not have as much wear and tear on their teeth. This study shows how top biologist scored along with lab test on deer of a known age.

[BW96]

Wait just a sec.... its all a crap shoot? Some of these folks are going to lose their mind over this.

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[Huntingfool]

no it is not a crapshoot IMO - it is about learning how to age a deer on the hoof and being patient -

[BW96]

no it is not a crapshoot IMO - it is about learning how to age a deer on the hoof and being patient -

I'm referring to teeth aging being a crapshoot. I agree with aging on the hoof, for the most part anyways. There is no fool proof method.

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[Huntingfool]

I'm referring to teeth aging being a crapshoot. I agree with aging on the hoof, for the most part anyways. There is no fool proof method.

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Gotcha - there is no fool proof method for sure - seems like a lot of folks count on the tooth wear approach which is sketchy at best on 5-7 year old deer

[3under3]

I wonder if there is a larger margin of error between the two methods? This chart says how often the biologist were right, how many years were they off when they were wrong?

[sotx]

This is why I always laugh at the guy on our ranch with the magic deer age finger. First thing he does when he sees a guys deer in camp is jam his finger in its mouth, gives it a little rub and just like that, BOOM, your deer is aged to with in +- 6 months.

[Top Of Texas]

This is why I always laugh at the guy on our ranch with the magic deer age finger. First thing he does when he sees a guys deer in camp is jam his finger in its mouth, gives it a little rub and just like that, BOOM, your deer is aged to with in +- 6 months.

Yeah, thats crap!

[Top Of Texas]

Regarding the tooth wear replacement, this reinforces what the Noble Foundation determined back in the 90's. The method should not be used in an attempt to nail down a specific deer's exact age.

And yes, the magnitude of error is small, at least in the Noble Foundation's study. Grouping the ages by young, middle-aged, and mature, the accuracy jumps to the 90 percentile. I haven't seen Mick's data grouped .

It's important to apply the technique within its limitations. Should not be used to kick people off leases, rather to educate and train.

This is probably getting old to some of you, but let's discuss management application within limitations. Say a group of 5 hunters has been on a lease for 5 years. They've killed 25 bucks, but they say the ranch can't seem to break the 130-140 B&C ceiling. One hunter saved jaws from all bucks killed. An individual well schooled in tooth wear technique ages the jaws between 2 and 5 years old with the bulk being 3 and 4.

What's the management implication?