I can generally age them within .5-1 yr. which is plenty good enough for me. I get within that and like what I see, I'm shooting, no overthinking things Free.

DQ, you’re an authority on here on age and score but no estimate with all those pics over 3 years???? Cmon man……

Free, too much work for me unless I'm the one sighting in on them. Great specimens though Free, all mature and for sure shooters for where I'm currently hunting...I will continue to go with 5.5-6.5 on max deer rack, on avg...

I hate this thread is fizzling out. Seems a topic worthy of more but likely not enough hunters are used to passing up 6 yr old bucks.
I’ve got a reason to bump the thread cause yesterday I got the first real good pics of the buck I posted with the three year progression of pics. If anyone wants to consider/reconsider age/score go ahead.
One of the guys is trying to hunt him so with some needed luck we may have a score soon. If not then fun to see what he does next year.

He sure is a pretty deer. Solid mass and nice width. I still think 21+' inside, mass will be solid, beam length will be good, and the curve tot he tines will make him score better than he appears.

Nice body for a post rut buck too. I sure do hope the hunter gets some tape on him, I want to see how my score estimate relates to real life....

arse has lost a-lot of muscle since 22. Pretty deer

I have 101 down

Callouses on the knees usually come with jelly in the brisket.

has a really cool cape too

Yes he has a very cool cape.
He also has callouses below the knees at his feet/ankles(the 38th characteristic?). I’m not used to seeing/looking for that.
Bobo we really close on down-I got maybe inch or two more.

One of guys bow hunts with us this morning killed the buck we’ve been talking about age and score on.
I’ll post pics moro but any more guesses on age score?
Hint-beams close to 25 and about 21 wide. Field dressed 146.

i figured him heavier then that.

101 down
46 down

147(150 if brow was still there)

Field dressed 146# is pretty good for post rut deer, would have put him in the 170-180# field dressed range pre rut and then live weight would be well over 200#

He is gonna push 160 even with the missing brow, not including any extra which it doesn't appear he has much. I will make a stab and say 10' more than BOBO, 157 as is....

I would guess 7; although I’ve heard that a true 12 point “typical” deer is rare, like 1 in 10,000, and can be 5 to 7 years old. I do see many 10’s and very few 12’s.

That's a spectacular buck!

congrats, a buck of a lifetime !!

I missed mass I bet by 5 106-107 down

Very close on down. Heck of a frame.
Bobo thanks for playing along so much and TxBuc and others as well.
Looks like not too much interest anymore, so I’ll post score moro probably.

Ya he has a stand out frame, will look really good as a pedestal mount

Congrats to hunter.

I did way over weight him, I would of bet money that deer dressed low 60’s , has a long body

My last two bucks from Concho where 148 and 152 dressed, both rutted down.

145 dressed is in upper end of average for our mature deer(no protein and rutted down).

He gross scored 160 and that’s adding back in about 5” where he was broke.
From watching him 3 years we think he was 7 but always hard to tell.
Back to the point of the thread and wondering what age is max rack. It appears his max rack was this year at 7 but we did have good rainfall and it’s just a sample size of one.

Awesome mass from the bottom all the way to the tap. Tines can be fixed but hate to see the G3 gone.
7 is about top for us, it takes a lot of rain at 8... Just doesn't happen that often... no protein.

So many variables come into play. We shoot trophies at 6 plus. Biggest racks have come from 7, but it does not always work out. Akin to farming and dice, it’s always a gamble

100% agree but fun to speculate around campfire instead of talking politics etc.

FR, I don't think there is any certain answer. You know the ranch I'm hunting some now is incredibly large with no supplemental feeding other than wheat and no "management" per say. 3 or 4 seasons ago I passed a nontypical deer I thought was a mid 60's buck, lots of pics of him over the years with a very unique rack. He was mid 70's as a 4yr old, 140 as a 5yr old, 140 as a 6 yr old and was killed at 7 at 173" oddly enough these were years that the range was excellent. Certainly there are lots of factors in a deers growth but my observation is that the very best bucks are getting killed at 6 or 7 yrs old. The deer past that sure can grow some neat antlers and show some cool traits but those really old bucks seem to top out in the 40's and 50's here, with an occasional deer in the 60's. I realize this is very anecdotal with this 1 deer, but I have seen a lot of this.