Aging Whitetails by Their Teeth

[mwk128]

Tooth wear DOES WORK for classifying deer into the following 3 categories:

Fawn (6 month old)
Yearling (1.5 year old)
Adult (2.5+)

The above 3 categories are 100%

If you want to classify a step further (NOT accurate, but can get you in the ball park):
Fawn (6 months)
Yearling (1.5)
Middle age (2.5-4.5)
Mature (5.5+)

Agree with this. My dad aged deer for nearly 40 years for the Game Commission in Pennsylvania. Anything 2.5 or older was just considered adult due to inaccuracies in trying to age older deer. (And at the time there were no antler restrictions so the vast majority of bucks killed during rifle season were 1.5 or 2.5).

[Chance Love]

Nope.. I know a lease in turmoil over a jawbone that I pulled as we speak. The deer was easily 5 or 6 from just what I could see in the head when I cape him but his teeth show 3..
A blocky headed 71/4x21x23 cape on a free range hill country buck.. Lol
They asked me and I told them to throw the jaw in the campfire and call him 6..

Geez that’s a BIG cape for a hill country deer. We’ve been on our hill country lease 16 years and every single 21”+ cape we have killed has been on a 6+ year old deer. Actually very few have had capes that big. Dang sure NO 3 year old will have one that size. I’ve never even seen a cape off a 3 year old south Texas buck go 21”.

Tell those guys to calm down, it’s NOT a 3 year old. STOP using the dang teeth!!!

[Gumbo Man]

A lot of solid facts. The only sure way to age a whitetail without history from birth is in the walk in cooler.

[Top Of Texas]

Y'all are so much fun!

Here, I'll share that I also have experienced extreme cases when tooth wear didn't match my expectation. I killed this buck in Nebraska in 2016. I thought he was 5-ish when I shot him based solely on field judgment. His teeth said 2.5 yrs.

And yet, tooth wear still has meaningful applications in management. Cool, hu?

[Top Of Texas]

So, here's some harvest data from this season, 2022. There are 5 hunters who hunt this ranch 1 week per year. So like many other hunters across the U.S., they don't have the luxury of building history. Yet they have gotten really good at field aging bucks, which is evidenced by the tooth wear of the bucks they kill. Do they know the actual years of each of these bucks? No. Does it matter? No. Did 4 of the 5 dead bucks have at least 1 dished molar? Yes. Is there mountains of evidence that reveal bucks are at or near peak antler development when they have 1 to 2 dished molars? Yes. Is tooth wear providing insight and encouragement to these hunter's abilities in the field? Yes.

P.S. - No one got kicked off the lease, or even "in trouble" for killing the 2 yr old.

[DeerGeek]

[/B][/B]QUOTE=Top Of Texas;16606979]So, here's some harvest data from this season, 2022. There are 5 hunters who hunt this ranch 1 week per year. So like many other hunters across the U.S., they don't have the luxury of building history. Yet they have gotten really good at field aging bucks, which is evidenced by the tooth wear of the bucks they kill. Do they know the actual years of each of these bucks? No. Does it matter? No. Did 4 of the 5 dead bucks have at least 1 dished molar? Yes. Is there mountains of evidence that reveal bucks are at or near peak antler development when they have 1 to 2 dished molars? Yes. Is tooth wear providing insight and encouragement to these hunter's abilities in the field? Yes.

P.S. - No one got kicked off the lease, or even "in trouble" for killing the 2 yr old.[/QUOTE]



Good

[GarGuy]

How old is this deer? 4? Tall crests

[DeerGeek]

How old is this deer? 4? Tall crests

100% sure it’s over 2.5 (Adult)

4.5

[GarGuy]

100% sure it’s over 2.5 (Adult)

4.5

Anyone else know how old he is?

[PondPopper]

Anyone else know how old he is?

Probably 6-7.

[billfromtx]

He looks ancient to me. 8+

[Top Of Texas]

How old is this deer? 4? Tall crests

4

[Johnson]

How old is this deer? 4? Tall crests

By the book his 4

[GarGuy]

4

Absolutely 4 by the book from his teeth. He peaked 3 years ago antler wise. He's a minimum of 8. Probably 9 or ten. Really funny colored deer almost beige year round.

[GarGuy]

I'll post live pics of him when I get home