I have been looking at photos of deer people need aged.
That got me to thinking. What makes you a good judge of age
is this what you do as a job, or do you just look at pics, and others opinions then agree. So basically what i am asking is are the age judges knowledgable or talking out their butt.
I'm not trying to offend anyone. I just want to know some of these people's background.

I think some are guessing and some are actually using guidelines based on experience.

i would doubt if anyone here had any professional back ground, this is a forum of opinion, when you ask for age and score you get those opinions, a lot of us have hunted all our lives and looked at a million deer in real life and in pictures here and other places, some people look at what others post and draw conclusions, and others look at the deer and post thoughts, I do not think anyone expects to be accurate to the 1/4 inch, but a lot of us can get pretty close from time to time

If you have looked at a lot of deer and KNOW what to look for you can get pretty close.

I find that photos are tough to judge because they only give you one view and sometimes the quality is poor, etc.

Lots of stand time helps. When I first started guiding I would look at the pics in Texas Trophy Hunter and try to get age and score before looking at the captions.

I also referred to (and still do) a book by Dave Richards & Al Brothers called Observing & Evaluating Whitetails which is a resource that I highly recommend.

Lotta guys on this forum are real good judges from what I've seen. At least they agree with me, so they gotta be right, right?

I've only been bow hunting 3 years, so I'm still learing. I like to take a guess as to what I believe the age is, then see if I'm close to what the more experienced hunters conclude. It helps me to look at my deer in the field with a more practiced eye, relating to age.

i would say you advance from reading books that talk simply about deer judging, watching dvds and reading magazines. second i would add that being an experienced hunter has advantages. lastly, if you have experience with people who have been hunting for many years and dont mind teaching you then that obviously has benefits.

I would like to think that having guided on a central texas ranch since 98 and being in the field as well as working with our State biologist I have a descent understanding of how to field judge a deer. Lot of it just has to do with spending the time and observing deer, after a while it becomes pretty obvious. It has been said though unless you have a birth certificate for a specific deer there is no real scientific method of knowing the difference in a year or two. Just my opinion.

Got my PHD in on the hoof deer aging.






Actually, just have looked at tons of deer, whether in the stand, pictures, mounts, videos, books, online, whatever. All experience. I may not get every one right, but I'd say I get the majority spot on.

+1, and that is a good book.

Being able to see deer in ALL age classes really helps in aging deer on the hoof. Most places don't have deer that will be older than 4.5 unless its HF'ed. I have learned from Books(Mike Biggs)and watching deer on my ranch. We will see deer from 1.5-7.5 every year. You learn what to look for. There is no exact science.Even deers ages will look different from pre-rut, rut and post-rut.

I've got just over 40 deer seasons behind me. I didn't really get into the age thing until about 1990. Since then I've learned a lot. So far, I haven't made any bad mistakes on field guessing a buck's age. In fact, most I tend to miss on the low side. I'm basing that on my estimate of age vs what the biologist tells me from examining the deer's jaw.

My back ground is limited to TPW magazine and a seminar I went to, presented by QDMA. The way the QDMA guy explained it made it pretty simple. He compaired deer to humans, young deer like teenagers (healthy) are long legged and lean (1 1/2 to 2 1/2 yo deer), (healthy) people in their 20's and 30's start putting on more muscle and fat an so do deer at 3 1/2 and 4 1/2. As people start to get older 40s and 50s they start getting pot bellied, and fuller faced same with 4 yo and older deer once again... there's a little more to it but you can see where it's going.

I do pretty good I guess, because I always give my opinion before looking to see what others have said.

I STILL find it funny that 10 or 15 years ago only a game warden could age a deer and then only by looking at their teeth. Now days everybody is and expert!

That book is great, have my copy in hardback. As a matter of fact, my dad and uncles are mentioned in passing as the "hunting pressure" from neighboring leases somewhere in the intro. They hunted next to the Hindes ranch.

The evolution of deer management. Even aging by tooth wear is not an exact science...

X2 on comparing deer body growth to humans growth.

Comparing to human growth is good. Also, I think something that is overlooked in aging a deer is their FACE. A lot can be told by looking at a deers face.

There is no substitute for experience. I think you are right that there are a number of folks on this forun that talked out of their behinds. But when you ask for opinions, you are going to get exactly what you are paying for. Having the opportunity to learn from someone that knows what they are talking about helps get you going in the right direction. Being involved in making those age decisions and seeing the results of those decisions first hand is invaluable. For most, I doubt they are involved in guessing the age of a deer then taking the jaw out to age it more than a couple times a year. When you get to do this 40+ times a year, you tend to get pretty good at it. On score, I always tell my hunters, I dont do score. If he makes you grab your gun without hesitation he is the right one for you. In all of my age decisions(in the hundreds) I have only missed one. Called him 7 1/2 and he turned out to be 4 1/2. I am not saying I got the exact year right but whether he was mature(over 5 1/2) or not. As someone said earlier, pics can be very deceiving. Always view the deer on the hoof before making a final decision on age. The bottom line is to give it your best guess and then get the jaw out to see how you did. If you make a mistake, try and figure out where you went wrong. It is going to happen to everyone from time to time. This is not an exact science. We took a deer a few years back that was at least 5 1/2 by his body. Took out the jaw and it showed to be 3 1/2. I sent in the teeth to a lab for confirmation and they said 5 1/2. I guess he was living in the protein and not wearing out his teeth too much?? Who knows for sure.

only true way to learn is actually seeing mature deer on the hoof. I understand what Tye's talking about.. hunted with a few guys that would call 3.5 year old deer 4.5,5.5, 6.5 because they had never seen a true 5.5/6.5 mature deer.

More mature deer you see the better you get at it

I couldnt agree more. A lot of people just dont have experience in viewing a truely mature deer, because in the area they hunt, deer that get past 3-4 years old go nocturnal, if any ever make it. Once you have spent some time actually looking at a mature deer, in the field, it goes a long way to being able to judge a deer. Books are great, i have several myself, one great one, and i cant remember the author, is about the life of deer. The author studied several ranches, and photographed deer for several years. It helps in not only aging a deer, but in horn growth as well.

I was introduced to the subject when I started hunting 20 ys ago...but at 5, how much do you really take in. On the lease my dad was on..not properly aging a buck before pulling the trigger could be costly. Since then even the leases I have been on have been ran that way, with mistakes taking a large chunk out of the pocketbook. Now I just mainly hunt places that only require the 13" criteria, but still shoot based on age. Helped out a lot as well, being able to watch deer almost every day from the porch. My parents live on the back side of a big game preserve, and deer would show up in the fields when the feeders went off like clockwork, but all but a cpl over the years if seen during daylight hours were off limits. But it is a heck of a lot easier judging a deer in person than limited photos on here...and I suck past the 6.5 mark, just don't see many past that point running around in our area, but pretty sure there are some folks on here that have plenty past that point and are fairly accurate from 0-9.

A lot of people also want to believe a deer is 5.5 so they can shoot it and think they are shooting a mature deer. No one I hunt with goes out and says they want to shoot a 2.5 or 3.5 year old deer, but it can get very tempting when you are staring at a 3.5 year old, 140 class 10 pointer.

I think past 6.5 is hard for almost anyone, even when jaw aging. How do you age a deer with missing teeth?!

I guess the important thing is that A LOT more people are trying to age deer and most can at least tell a if a deer is young. I grew up only counting points 8 pts... BOOM!

Still even today I do more "deer ageing" when they are laying in the back of a truck. But this forum is helping me (and others I'm sure) be more aware.

There is no subsitute for experince when it comes to ageing and estimating antlers!

There are a few on here that are really good at it, and there are also some that wouldnt know a 5.5 year old buck that scored 150" if it was carrying a sign that said so!

I raise deer so I just go by what I know from experience