Looks like an older fella to me.

Where is the rest of this picture?

Man, this is a tough on for sure.
There is no doubt in my mind this deer is mature looking at his front end and face.
Without a doubt he is 5.5+. He definitely looks a little 'hatchet arsed' like a lot of the post mature deer tend to get at 8.5+ but I'm thinking it is more do to just weight loss from being at the tail end of the rut on this deer. He certainly could be post mature though.

rtp, the deer you posted definitely has the hocks of an old deer but there is no way in a million years I would have guessed him to be post mature by this picture.
If you look at this deer from the hocks to the top of his head and don't look at the stains on his legs or his horns, he screams 3.5 years old. Heck, he does not even have the big front end (neck, shoulders, & brisket) that most old deer have. Even his face looks extremely young. Amazing....thanks for posting that picture.

Most of the post mature bucks I've seen down south resemble the Caldwell Cnty deer in the original post a lot but with even bigger necks and brisket and sometimes even less on the backside than this deer has. This could be due to just being bigger bodied deer overall down there than the typical Caldwell Cnty deer.

Fortunately for me I had many pics of the buck I posted to make my decision from. I just chose the one I posted because it showed the staining and not much else. I wanted to illustrate how one pic can be deceiving. If you look close in the one pic, you will see a callous area on the front knee. The buck is also sitting back on his front hooves more so than a typical 3.5 yr old. Like I said I had the benefit of many pictures. I think the OP is going to have to get his eyes on his buck to make his decision. The pics posted simply arent enough to make a great guess. I think he is post mature myself but Im not willing to lay a wager on it from just those pics. That hatch arse is one of the things I was looking at.

Neck lines sure fit the description of an older deer to me.

His rump and the hump above his shoulders is what's throwing me. From that second photo, the deer appears to be at least 5 1/2 and probably older.

How old is this deer?