I had a good friend harvest a buck of a lifetime last weekend. The deer wont score 120" gross but we have been after him since 2012. He has been going down hill since then. His taxidermist aged the deer at no younger than 10.5 years old. He had almost no teeth left above the gum line. For a wild deer to make it to 10.5 on private land let alone public would be a miracle in itself. I just wanted to share a picture of the deer to show people that aging a deer based off a picture isn't easy and it very few people can do it well. I just wanted to show everyone that different parts of the Country and even different parts of the state they live in have deer populations that age differently. I'm sure most people would never guess that the deer in the attached picture is no younger than 7.5 years old in the 2012 picture. I know we never did. We knew he was old but not that old. This was a big woods buck with poor nutrition who grew up being hunted by wolves 365 days a year. This is the only day light picture we have ever got of this deer.
There are places he can send the jawbone to have it officially aged. Would be interesting to know for sure.
