For the last two years we have been trying to keep track of the ages of the deer that were harvested off of our land in Lavaca County. We try to age the deer the best we can by trail cam pictures and field observations. What we have seen has actually been quite shocking. The following are pictures from deer that were harvested over the past two seasons. Every deer was taken from the same stand so soil and forage conditions were the same. I know the pictures are not the best, but I would like some input on how old you think each deer is. Picture 4 is a deer that we never caught on camera and that is the only picture I have of him. I will post up the jaw bones a little later. I made one huge mistake and was way off on another.

1


2


3


4

1. 2-3
2. 4.5
3. 5+
4. 3

Here are he jaw bones for the each deer and what I think each is aged at.

4.5- I had him at 2.5 and was quite pissed when my nephew harvested him. Once I got him caped out and looked at the jaw, I was a quite relieved.




2.5- I saw this deer several time and had him at 4.5, he towered over the younger bucks, showed signs of maturity, so I figured if he was 4.5 and only had 7 points, he needed to go. When I caped him out and saw his jaw my heart sank, in a couple of years he might have been something.




7.5-I had history with this deer so I had a pretty good idea on his age. He had the exact same antler configuration for our 3 year history. I actually hit this deer during the 2012 archery season and he lived (see my "where did I hit post). He did not show on cameral until after the 2013/2014 season and showed up two days before the 2014 rifle season. At 7.5 and a weak rack, he needed to go.

3.5-This one is pretty much what I thought he was although we did not have any camera pictures I know that he was too old to be young and too young to be old.

Interesting..
what about sending the jaw out to be aged by dissecting the teeth?