Age these teeth please

I looked it up and even downloaded the pdf from tdpw. But i'm still not able to age them. Can i get some help from the veteran hunters out there.

I am going to have say either 5.5 or 6.5 yr old. Your out west correct?

Im not real good at it, I like to have the book with me when I do it, but its older than younger, I would guess 5.

matt

Close to 5.5

5.5

STX its in Val Verde.

Thanks guy, this makes me feel good that he was ripe for the picking. I posted pics and the guess was 3-4.5

Then I will go with 5.5 due to his diet being mainly browse.

5.5

6.5

No way those belong to a 3 year old unless he is eating rocks.

Agree 5.5

I posted some cleaner pics, with a better view of the top of the teeth.

Having that tongue in the pictures is just making me think about tamales now!

Pays to see both sides when aging. I would call him a 6.5 yr old based off of both sides after seeing that other side pics.

Yep it shows a little more wear!

Not a little but a lot more.

Yeah, I brushed them clean in the second set of pics. After studying the pdf file even more I'm starting to see the difference through the years. Yep i would have to agree 6.5 years old. The teeth are concave, and the teeth are worn pretty low. Good mature kill.

Just for shits and giggles here's what he looked like on hoof. As stated before the guess was 3-4.5 I'm guessing to age deer you have to take location into account? Because my initial guess was 4. I would of never guessed 6.5 I see other 5-6 year old bucks in other threads and they look mature, with the big sagging belly, and the droopy brisket. Any way here's the pic.

Infundibulum is clear in tooth 3 and 6.
Definitely a 6.5 year old.

Personaly I would have never guessed that deer was 6.5 years old from that picture.

But then again what I have to go off of is our deer whcih are increadibly overfed and fat.

You might be able to get two tamales out of it.

Well it made me think of cooking a hog head, but yeah not gonna get much.

I see at least 5.5. If he was on free choice protein, he could be up around 7.5, who knows for sure, unless you send it in for cementum annuli.

You didn't use your personal toof brush, did ya?

Area and diet have to be taken into account with ageing from teeth wear after 3.5 years old. Sandy soil areas will show more ware than other soil types. Primary browse as well.

Pic the way he is standing I would have thought younger than 6.5 and in area I hunt he could be 4.5 with that tooth ware.

The area is bitterbrush, little grass, sage. It's the trans-pecos region, which is the start of the desert. I wouldn't give it's teeth too much credit for age, nothing but rocks, sand and branches to chew on.

Grout, what's your guess

I'm no expert but I'd lean more towards the 4.5 side. Just can't see how he'd be 6.5 with that skinny neck and that regular sized body. But I could be wrong...Nice buck for your new place though! Just be careful that you don't shoot too many, that happened out by us. A ranch was subdivided and the new owners had great bucks the first year (1 even killed a 16 pt), really nice bucks! Well that country can't handle that kind of pressure and it wasn't long til the places started to go up for sale. I know your pretty management minded by your post and glad you got a nice one. Seen any of the fawns you were hoping to see?

Yeah, i saw one pic of a small doe her head barely reached the tray. No sign of her mama though. On the way to the land a couple of weeks ago i saw two dead fawns on the side of the road. They were surprising small.

Right now there is only a old doe on the hit list. Unless a big mature buck wonders into the area. I have not seen anything worth taking on the old trail cam. Bunch of young bucks. Although the buck i shot was sparing with another buck in the dark. I wish i could of seen what the other buck looked like. My son said he wants a buck, but i told him that there are no more shooters. So he'll have to settle for a doe unless another mature buck wonders in. I hadn't seen that buck i took untill the beginning of Oct. So theres a outside chance that something will wonder in.

Grout, i don't know if you saw my "birthday buck" thread but i have some pic of him in the daylight. See if the pics change your mind on his age.
http://www.texashuntingforum.com/forum/u...y_t#Post3725571

Our place has about as much sand as you can shake a stick at and the deer pick corn out of it every day.

Looks like what we would call a 5 from the first pics, 5 or more from the the ones added later.

Not all deer are gonna look huge with big fat boddies, non-protein fed free range bucks that live on a place that may be a little over capacity will be much leaner.

Thanks, for the info red.

This is my first full year of hunting. So all of you guys info, and opinions are helping me acquire knowledge. I'm hooked on deer hunting, so I'm always reading, or watching deer shows. Much to my fiancees chagrin.

Like i said before I'm no expert, just going from what I have learned from our place west of you. Our bucks get huge bodies but average antlers, seems like the plant protein is good for the body but doesn't do much for their horns. We have almost like properties, see that little green bush with the yellow flowers in your b-day pic? They eat that, pretty nice buck. The rut is usually mid December so you will see more bucks.

RedChevy not so much sand, it's mostly rock, gravel & what they call Caliche (white dirt that gets really slick and sticky when wet).

Yes I am well versed in caliche... not very fond of the stuff.

I've been doing a lot of research on aging deer since joining a management minded lease and those teeth are definitely a 5.5 year old or older deer. The bodies don't tell the whole story everywhere depends on what and how much they eat besides browse. Those sway back heavy gut roman nose thick brisket bucks are awesome to see but not every region grows em like that, IMO