He's too young

[sotx]

I have theory. I believe we are under aging deer a lot for the simple reason folks are afraid to be wrong or they simply do not know. I know guys that have never aged a deer over 4 years old. Every deer they see be it in pictures or on the hoof say oh he's only 4 or he's young when in reality the danged deer is prolly 6+. They are not willing to really go out and judge a deer's age. Its easier to just say he's young. No effort is needed, if your wrong then they say better safe than sorry. Its a cop out in my opinion. I also think hunters jealousy plays a part in it as well. They'll say he's young so this guy wont kill him or it will put doubt in his mind.
Now not everyone is this way, but I see it a lot. I hunt a large pasture we have 20 men and I guarantee 10 of them cannot give you an honest age estimate.
For example, last season had a 148" 10 point buck located. Thought it be a great buck for my daughter to hunt. Took his picture. I could see he was old. I guessed him at 7 maybe older. I showed his pictures around to the guys in camp. To a man every one of them believed him to be 4 year old. Two guys had already seen him and said they would not kill him because he was too young. Another guy went over to the area and saw him and said he was 4. Now I am no expert and I will admit when I am wrong or just flat don't know. But to me this buck had all the signs of post mature. Saggy skin, low hanging wiggle brisket, lower muscle mass, roman nose and scars, callouses on his knees. So a week later my daughter kills this buck. The dang teeth on one side are gone just a big hole where no teeth exist. The other side was down to the gums. The dang deer could have been 10 years old who knows.
Anyways, I saw Smarts rant this morning and it got me going

[BrandonA]

Lot of people judge based on Antler size. They think every 5.5+ deer should have big horns. If the deer isn't as big as they think it should be his 4.5 yrs old

[175gr7.62]

That's why I don't get wrapped up about it anymore. It's a dang deer. If you want to shoot it, shoot it. If my boy wants to shoot it, it's getting shot.

[sotx]

That's why I don't get wrapped up about it anymore. It's a dang deer. If you want to shoot it, shoot it. If my boy wants to shoot it, it's getting shot.

Yes!

[BULL21]

Most people can’t tell the difference past 3-4 at best. Shoot it if you want to and forget what anyone else thinks.

[Deuce16]

Education is the key. If place has a management program, don't take it for granted that everyone there went to the same deer aging school. Gets pics and videos and discuss, breakdown, and educate everyone. A 3.5 year old STX deer looks a bit diff than a 3.5 year old ETX deer. Just my .02

[ATXArcher]

For the last several years I have been questioning if we have been under estimating ages on some of our bucks as well. You watch them in pics during the heat of the summer and they just seem so much leaner and smaller. Don't get me wrong, I don't think we have let tons of deer just get ancient on us, but we always revert back to erring on the side of caution and saying 4 years old or 3 years old let's just give him another year. I was having this conversation with a friend last night about a buck we have who already broke off his main beam just above the brow tine. We had a buck who did the same thing before. When we started wondering if it was in fact the same buck, we realized if it was him, he was at least 6 if not 7 years old.

[Texas8point]

normally the difference between a 3 yr old and a 5 yr old is obvious..... after 5 he's mature and that's all i need to know.

[texan16]

I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Tough thing about it though is that due to low deer numbers, heavy hunting pressure, poor management practices, or whatever... A LOT of folks have never actually seen a buck over 5 yrs old and dont even know what they look like. I think the hardest ages to determine are between 5 and 7.

[cehorn]

I agree with a lot of what is said here and generally there are multiple things going on which I am usually guilty of as well:

1. Judge by antlers and assume if it has small antlers it is young vs an old buck with a crappy rack as Brandon said. A lot of skims probably get missed this way. I know I am guilty sometimes but it is hard to look at the deer only and not the antlers.

2. As others mentioned, you make a judgement on a deer based on August trail camera pics. The deer is lean with a pencil neck so it must be young vs it hasn't put on his fightin' muscles. The same deer can look totally different in August vs right before the rut but in some cases the decision is/was made in August to not shoot.

3. Old vs young can look the same. As Texas8 said the difference between a 3 and 5 is obvious and I agree but it becomes a lot less obvious when you compare a buck past their prime w/ a 3 year old. Neck size can be the same, muscle mass as you mentioned and belly can be similar and most people (including me) don’t go to the next level including some of the things you are talking about (saggy skin, brisket, back, etc.) to distinguish between an old buck and say a 3 yr old. Very rarely is there disagreement on an age and score thread between deer 5-6, I’m not talking about disagreement between 5 & 6 but difference between mature or not (using 5 as the basis for mature) but there is generally a decent amount of disagreement (or varying answers) on a 3 yr old vs post mature.

4. It is easier to be conservative and say he is young and not shoot a mature deer vs getting in trouble for shooting a young buck. You can never be wrong passing a deer but that doesn’t make you right either.

After thinking about this, I need to think more about looking at the whole picture instead of 1 of the items above.

[175gr7.62]

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFMWKn30_rY"]Why Did You Shoot That Buck? - YouTube[/ame]

[D-BULL]

I agrre with ya 100% sotx. Same thing on my place as well, every deer is too young!

[breederbuck33]

Fun little exercise to do with the guys you hunt with, and crop the horns out of the pics. Aging that way tends to get a little more accurate.

[JeffK]

IMO..it's not to hard to determine if a deer is mature (5+) but the only accurate way to judge its actual age is to identify previous year pics of the deer and then make a judgment. A buck's body can look totally different from velvet, pre-rut and post rut.

Now when we are talking about places that are lucky to see a deer that is legal and they have a decent one show up, it's mostly likely a 4 year old that slipped by the year before.

[Throwin Darts]

Fun little exercise to do with the guys you hunt with, and crop the horns out of the pics. Aging that way tends to get a little more accurate.

x10000.

Take off the horns and more than half of hunters can't tell if they are looking at the same buck from picture to picture.