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My point was if you pulled the jaw you would know if it was 2.5 or not and not atleast 2.5.

I think the question people have to ask themselves when trying to create a management programs is:
Am I trying to manage for numbers of deer or am I managing for quality bucks.

Unfortunetly most of us don't have the money required or habitat in Texas to acheive both. Not saying that this can't occur, just saying that the majority of us don't have that luxury.

If we are managing for numbers and don't have the means supply the deer with enough quality food (protein, range management) then you can expect to see some small antlered deer or spikes in your lower age class deer.

If you are managing for quality of bucks then you have to put a lot of time in throughout the year to determine a harvest estimate (has to be better than a guess) and then follow through with eliminating excess mouths.

The biggest problem with groups or landowners that are trying to manage a property is there is no plan. We know what we would like to acheive but don't know how to get there. This in my opinion is caused because of lack of education or just poor planning.

Thats just my .02's

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No you can not get exact age on the lower jaw no matter what you believe. Their diet can have more of an effect on their teeth than what you believe. Best you can hope for is a general age. BTW I have ever lower jaw bone, weight, and pics of every deer killed on my place.

Lets put it this way, I would rather shoot a older ugly spike than a perfect 10 that was 2.5. Call it what ever you like, management or what ever. I add plenty of food for the deer from food plots, corn, to protein. There is always something for them to eat. So to many mouths is not a problem. I am on my property all the time (I live their) I also have lots of game cams up so I have a pretty good idea of the amount of deer on my place. The spike I shot this year I had watched for about 3 months, and new he needed to go. I had a great looking 8, but he had way more potential. All you can do is do what you think is right for your particular place. Make the best decisions you can and live with the effects. If I have to go a year without killing a deer that is fine, my main goal is not the largest rack (sure it would be nice) but I am just as content shooting trash bucks and does.

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Umm yeah you can... yearlings have worn down milk teeth... 2 year olds have their adult teeth in the same place that are sharp... That has nothing to do with diet. Yearlings are really the only age you can definitely tell with the lower jaw since it isn't about overall tooth wear... just those two teeth a side.

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Tooth wear does have to do with diet. Especially in a wet year when things are soft and stay soft. They don't wear as much.

Wet and dry years also have much do do with whether the fawn was born healthy enough and mamma had good milk for his first set of antlers to branch.

Wet and dry years have a lot to do with supplementing too. Wet years make supplementing look like a bargain and dry years make it look like it was just enough to make them hold their own.

It's really mostly about spring forbs which are better than supplementing.

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Thank you.

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Helo...that's why I hate the term feeding. Unless your deer are in a pen, you ain't feeding, you are supplementing.

Also, believe it or not, some deer chew more on one side than the other, if you feel the wrong side your age will be off.

Cutting the tooth is the only absolutely sure way. The rest is an educated guess and even the uber pros get it wrong sometimes.

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That is exactly what I was trying to say, you just said it much better than me.

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'Umm yeah you can... yearlings have worn down milk teeth... 2 year olds have their adult teeth in the same place that are sharp... That has nothing to do with diet. Yearlings are really the only age you can definitely tell with the lower jaw since it isn't about overall tooth wear... just those two teeth a side.'

Read what I wrote again and see if I disagree with you deerfeeder....

he is now saying that i don't know how to age deer because I don't have kids...

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Those teeth coming in are in the order of accuracy of the tooth ring method.

It's as close to 100% as you are going to get.

If you look at that spike's jaw and those teeth are worn... he was a yearling. If you look and they are sharp he wasn't.

I agree with you he looks a LITTLE bigger... but im not sure from the evidence that it is a 2 year old...

2 year old spikes are extremely rare in my experience.

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'Umm yeah you can... yearlings have worn down milk teeth... 2 year olds have their adult teeth in the same place that are sharp... That has nothing to do with diet. Yearlings are really the only age you can definitely tell with the lower jaw since it isn't about overall tooth wear... just those two teeth a side.'

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Oops, my bad, yes I agree with that. Once the milk teeth are gone is when it starts on the road to iffy.

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dressed or live weight?

My deer are getting up to 230 dressed now so Im not so sure we would be comparing apples to apples.

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But since you have the jaw... were the baby teeth still there?

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To answer your question I have MANY yearlings that weigh 130... and does...

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Yearling to me is 1.5 different terminology i guess...

Fawn up to like june their first year.. then yearling til june the next year...

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To answer your question I have MANY yearlings that weigh 130... and does...

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Damn you have some big deer, we have killed one doe that went 130 lbs before.

What exactly are you calling a yearling? A yearling to me is a deer under one year.

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To answer your question I have MANY yearlings that weigh 130... and does...

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Damn you have some big deer, we have killed one doe that went 130 lbs before.

What exactly are you calling a yearling? A yearling to me is a deer under one year.

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Correction and clarification on "yearling" a yearling is an animal that is one year old. And that is the definition that they use in the agriculture world, the tpwd uses that definition and everyone else, so a 1.5 year old deer is a "yearling"

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Helo, It still sounds to me like your deer herd is not in tip top shape (nutrition). The body weights of your harvested deer should be higher than what you have said they are. If you deer are getting propoer nutrition you will not have a 2.5 year old spike and your deer will way about 10-20 percent more than what you said they do. You are in the same situation as a lot of people. Either you will have to eliminate mouths or create more/better food for the deer. What are you planting for your food plots?

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Helo, It still sounds to me like your deer herd is not in tip top shape (nutrition). The body weights of your harvested deer should be higher than what you have said they are. If you deer are getting propoer nutrition you will not have a 2.5 year old spike and your deer will way about 10-20 percent more than what you said they do. You are in the same situation as a lot of people. Either you will have to eliminate mouths or create more/better food for the deer. What are you planting for your food plots?

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