We are thinking similar as usual. I purposely posted the game cam pic cause they all look about like that, except it was hard to find one without his head down eating. The other one he definitely looks older. The two archery guys would be happy with him but we aren’t sure on age. Seeing in person today helped.
Our small groups understanding is at 5 they need to be a real special deer for someone and then we talk. At 6+ everything is green light if you want him.

FR, have you had good success getting your teeth aged at the lab?

I routinely age deer on my place a year older than what tooth wear shows. I need to really get better about just subtracting a year from what i think.

Given my experiences on my place and how it isnt too far from yours, i would say that buck is 5.5 and could be younger based on my experience and could he 4.5 even. I do not see a 6.5+ yo deer there tho.

Just givning you something to think about on the rain….seeing anything out there in the rain?

TexBuck, I need to elaborate on my tooth lab aging opinion and don’t have time now. Maybe separate thread some times. We send a good many teeth in annually and I have lost some confidence in the method. I don’t think there is a method that works at a high enough accuracy level to put much weight on. Tooth wear on real young and real old is about all I got.
I’m just going by personal observation and opinions of others along with tracking same deer year to year when possible. Once they are dead I really have no way to confirm the thoughts at trigger pull.

FR, just to keep the thought going for a second, and not to belabor the point at all, but that almost mimics my thoughts on aging. I pretty much go with too young to shoot, and old enough to shoot. On my place i like that age to be around 5.5-6.5, but a really special 4.5 or someones first buck i wont get bent out of shape about.

So pretty much all the young ones and hard to determine ones (those in betweeners) get a pass by me. If they look ancient, i am happy to shoot. Not seeing any bucks that age group yet this season. Granted haven’t put enough time in the stand, but from what I have seen while there, its mostly 3-4 yo bucks with a lot of 1-2yo as well

I posted a study on here where they took deer whose age was known and had very experienced biologist age the deer by tooth wear. Then they sent it to the lab for testing.
The results with both methods were ver unimpressive. Around 50% if I recall.
IMO the very best way to age is cameras and videos and following your deer over time.
I will try to find that study and post it again. I too have little faith in either method

Found it: https://www.ckwri.tamuk.edu/sites/d...nsidedeerresearchnewsletter-fall2010.pdf

I went back and checked my guess, I'll stay with mid 130's. 135 to 138...from what I see anyway.