What do you all think about this tooth aging guide? Does it seem accurate and professionally put together? I want to try and age the buck I killed on Monday. I have the jaw ready to look at tomorrow morning. Thanks for any advice or pointers on tooth aging.
I worked a deer check station in IL for a couple of years and that is how we surveyed them. It defiantely takes practice, but w/ that and looking at the deer as a whole you should be able to come up w/ a good age. As a side note for people who hunt in states where they do check teeth and cut the lip to do so, MAKE SURE YOU STAY W/ YOUR TROPHY DEER not off looking at other trucks or they will cut the lip and your mount will need a different cape. I cut a few when nobody said not to only to find out later they were pissed.
Sure I can MN, tomorrow. I will post them up so we can all get a perspective. It will help us all learn. Jeff, on the military base I hunt, they have a wildlife biologist age each and every jawbone from every deer brought in...I might bring the jawbone down there tomorrow when I go hunting and see if her thoughts of age match my thoughts after I age it according to the pdf file I posted.
I can tell you that is the EXACT guide that I am given each year by our local game biologist to use to age our deer along with the field dressed weights that we have to log in regard to our issued depradation tags. For a novice, or at least me, it is easy to determine a 1 1/2yo and not too tough to determine a 2 1/2 yo, but beyond that, I start overthinking and second guessing and really don't have any confidence in my ability beyond 2 1/2. I agree with Jeff that there will be some regional differences to diet/soil, etc. but I think most, if not all Game Biologist recognize tooth wear as the standard for aging deer. Our local Biologist is concerned with the accuracy of the data he is getting (not just from me but from everyone in his area that is particpating in the herd reduction program) and acknowledges it takes a little training so this year he is requesting that we keep the jaw bone of all of doe killed under the program so that he can review our estimates after the season and help us to become better at it. I am really looking forward to his help in this regard. He will also help us make a permanent model of all the different years for future reference. Long response but this is a subject I find very interesting as I have attempted to age quite a few deer with this process over the last 3 years. I would suggest you locate your local game biologist for help. Not saying that some taxidermist can't do it as well, but my comfort zone lies with the "average" game biologist over the "average" taxidermist as being trained in this area. Good luck in this endeavor. Let me know what you come up with and the outcome/conclusion in this exercise.
Tooth wear aging is fairly inaccurate after a deer is 3 1/2 years old. I wish it were more accurate because I aced my tooth wear aging test back in college and I still look at the teeth of the deer I kill... but sometimes the best you can do is make an educated guess. Particularly if you're going say the deer is not 6 1/2 but rather 7 1/2.... that truly is a guesstimate. Pulling out a front tooth to look at the cementum annuli is the best way to do it. That costs about 25.00 to have it done.
I am sure that is correct. Just to clarify, our Biologist isn't that worried about differentiating a 6 1/2 from a 7 1/2 or even a 4 1/2. He is however, wanting to make sure that he has accurate data in separating fawns, 1 1/2's, 2 1/2's, 3 1/2's and 4 1/2's plus as he is trying to establish/maintain an accurate baseline for field dressed weights for the different age categories and what those weights are doing from year to year. I have mentioned this several times before, but I am in an area that had very few deer 15 years ago and even fewer 20 years ago to the point that they were almost nonexistent. But the CRP program in the mid to late 80's caused the deer population to flourish to where the Biologist now has our average deer densitiy at 60-70 deer per square mile. As recent as 4 years ago, he estimated it at 30-40 dpsqm, so we are losing ground. He is very concerned with skeletal size of the deer (which is why he wants field dressed weights and not gross weights) at these population densities. I am sorry if I am hijacking this thread or getting off course, that is not my intent, but again this is a subject that I have a strong interest in due to our concerted efforts in reducing our herd and trying to get the local biologist the best data possible.
