Midwest Machines thread has me thinking again about aging deer based off body size and shape. I think it's just as hard as going off of rack size. Here are 3 deer to age. Both A's are the same and both B's are the same, just giving two different shots. How old do you think deer A, B & C are?
Well I like this thread already! Great mind think alike, must be something in the MN water? A-top picture makes me wanna say 3.5 bottom picture makes me wanna say 4.5 B-Both tell me 2.5 C-Looks to me like a 1.5-2.5 cant make up my mind
The best way to age a deer is to kill it and examine the teeth, but if I had to guess: A = 4 B = 2 (maybe 1) C = 2 (no half years yet because they appear to be from June)
I 100% disagree. Aging by the teeth is the most accurate way, and I don't mean just looking at the wear - I'm talking about counting the rings of cementum in a sliced root sample. Of course it's time consuming and you'd need the equipment and know how but that's what friends at QDMA are for
3.5 1.5 and 2.5 QDMA just sent out a good DVD on aging deer on the hoof. How'd I do? A could be older.
A = 4.5 (Very well may be 5.5) B = 2 C = 3 (? poor angle from a single pic) I'm including the ".5" because there's snow on the ground on A and the animal is in rut.
http://www.qdma.com/uploads/articles/3287/cementum_accuracy__large.jpg I don't want to lead this thread off course but above is a study published by qdma. Shows the accuracy of aging whitetails by their teeth with both methods using known aged jaws.
It's a couple years old now, but this is the best piece I have ever seen on aging deer on the hoof: Aging Bucks on the Hoof | Quality Deer Management Association
A - 4+ B & C - can't tell from angle/pic both look about 3ish best I can tell. All have a decent brisket, which would indicate 3+. A had a very thick neck what is expect of a deer > 3.5, but I'm not seeing the belly dash is expect on a 5+ deer. B appears to be the youngest with a thin neck. ~Bill
Given the different times of year for the different pics and no other deer in the pics for comparison, I wouldn't be surprised if they were all pics of the same deer. You wouldn't do that to us would ya Fitz?
Yup. I would. All the same deer, Buster. A- last year when he's either 4.5 or 5.5 B- last year in the summer, 4 or 5 C- this year, 5 or 6 Depending on the angle of the photo, the time of year, how the deer's positioned, etc... I think it's much harder than most think to accurately gauge a deer's age off of a photo or two.
Oh you dirty dog Nice job, that's hilarious. I got to looking at the pics again this morning on my new larger PC monitor (42") (Lightning nailed mine night before last) I was fairly sure after seeing them better that it was all the same deer, that frontal shot had me fooled the first time I looked them over and guessed and still had me uncertain until you confirmed it. I started noticing a lot of very similar body build and shape this morning though and it hit me that it may well be the same deer. It can be extremely hard to age deer by body size from pics even under ideal conditions but especially so when pics are from different seasons, times of year. It's very much like taking an excerpt from a book and trying to identify the paragraph out of context. Still funny though.
