Age, width and score

Give me your thoughts on age, inside spread and gross score guesses this buck. He has 15 scoreable points. I will post my guesses later on.

I’ll bite... old as dirt, maybe a year less.
Let’s call him 8.5
22” inside.
Low 150’s

100-102 base+ 50” up top if I got everything.

Wish you posted better pics. (I kid)

152", 21 inside, 2 or 3 years old.

I want to see that big typical in the brush!

7-8, 21”-158

22 wide
146 although I didn't count all the 15 points as scorable
6+

I smell waffles... I may move the bar down to 7.5.

About 6.5 yr old with a score of 145" about 22" inside.

7 1/2, 22" inside 145 net

6.5 yo, 21" inside, 142 net

Typical or NT net score guess?

3.5 maybe 4.5. 145 range nt

He was big for his age.

Gorgeous slick 10!

This is a good one!!!

His nose gives away his age. What a healthy young deer

3.5 (I wanted to say 2.5 but I couldn't do it...)
20.5"
140"

I was more partial to this 10 pt. with longer beams and more mass.

stud!

143 I cant tell on age. parts of me want to call him old, but my normal old indicators aren’t there. Knees are haired over, arse still round, brisket is old though, but I know if you know the score he ain’t a 143 3 years old ....

Yeah, not much to critique on that deer. Great looking buck!

I don’t know if y’all remeber that thread, but we might put the ear wrinkle therory into play.

Small wager on age, width and score then? Just asking for a friend.

You still haven’t drank all the beer you won off me last time.. lol

21w 143 score

I really don’t know on age. Rake and brisket bubble say old everything else young.
4.5

Would 15" of rain in September make you waffle a little on body condition or not...just asking for a friend
At 143 are you talking gross or net or WTF did you bump your head?...just asking for a friend again

Those sure look good

Going to say 24" inside, 145" and 6 years old.

6.5 yo, 22.5 inside, 157

Then he is 8-9

And I stick with score as Gross, he has no mass and although beams are good, he doesn’t have a tine over an ear.

How old is this buck then if that one is 8 or 9....just asking for a friend

6.5+
22”
150....

Great looking buck.....

You're having too much fun with this stx

My wife just overruled me. She says the deer is 10.

Guess I'll never live that one down.

7.2567

He is laughing at me. I’m completely stumped

I am laughing at you, laughing at Fouzman and really laughing at stx...he told me I was drunk, bumped my head and needed glasses. He just loves to jack with people

19"wide,9 yo., 134" gross on the down hill side.

I think it’s 143 but no clue on age, he got my head messed up now

fwiw, the wife says 147, 22 1/8 and 10yrs old. Who tf knows? I used to spend a lot more time in the stand watching bucks of all age groups interract. I only get about 30 days of hunting during the 5 mo. MLD season, these days. I've reverted to being not much use evaluating deer from photos.

Im going 8+ on this one. He is so old and tired he cant hold his ears up anymore.

First one shows size but not all the signs of old age, so I would guess he is upper end of middle aged, around 5.5. Though he could be much older and on the decline rather than on the incline. The mass and gnarly stickers on his antlers suggest he is older than younger.

Do you happen to have some progression shots of him through the years to show his age?


The second one appears more mature to me. Given your range conditions he should be bigger bodied if he was middle aged or even early mature aged. His smaller right side suggests maybe he had a slight injury or was sick. In those situations the smaller body may be just a sign of that rather than declining health from older age, but again some history with these bucks would be helpful.

You know he does. C'mon stx. Tell us what he is. Excuse me, was. And the progression photos.

Old, 23” 140.

He’s a fat sob.

6.5 and 21" wide

After reading the other STX post where he said he shot the first buck pictured here, my guess is this was a 5-6.5 yo buck that he took due to its short tine length (if they don’t have the genetics I will shoot...paraphrased from his other post).

That hoss 10 pt in the second pic would be a great one to shoot but has potential to be a really sweet deer in another year or two.

Just my suspicion.

First deer width inside 21 ish. No idea on score as those tines are really short.

Think someone hit their head and used wrong side of the tape On a few measurements

Some nice bucks...
first one looks to be in as bad a shape as me. I bet he was a stud when he was younger
A history of pictures will give you a better age than his teeth. 8+
I'm gonna call it 19 1/2"inside...
Around 130...

My guesses when I saw him the first time were 100" of MB, mass and spread(WAG just as a start) with 52" of tines. After I looked at him a little longer I thought 21" IS, 24" MB and 33" of mass which was 102" and 52" tines(6" G1's, 14" of G2's, 14" of G3's, 6" of G4s and 12" total of NT's(5)) for 154" gross. I had him at either 3 or 4 yrs old after watching him around a few other bucks.

I would of never put him over 30 on mass and I really short changed him in tine
21spread
30 mass
23 on beams

His knees didn’t show him older which I should of just stuck with but I let you in my head

This buck is at least 8 yrs old this year and was around or just over 200" gross last year. He is blind in his right eye is how they know which buck it is. They have a long history with him. He looks his age whereas the other buck does not look as old.

The way they cull the lower end bucks of every age class each year, there is a very slim chance this buck made to an older age unless he was injured or sick after last season. The ranch manager/biologist felt he was a 3 yr old based off what they see daily in bucks to compare to when I showed him the pictures of this buck. I had a hard time seeing 154" till I added up the tines and NT tines. Those NT got him up in score with 5 of them.
I am not saying that my guess of 154" was on the money, high or low either just yet...

So how old was he?

Well you are one of the few peoples opinion I value more than my own when it comes to age so I will take your word for it. I would have never had him that young in a million years though.

Kind wish he was 8+, now I think it would of been kind of cool to see what he did at 6/7.

If he was an older buck last year then no one recognizes him this year...no buck had short tines like that last or any other year prior in this area of the ranch. I sat at this same blind last year for a 1.5 days in late October and had no photos of any buck that even looked close to this shape and tine length. I do have photos of a several bucks that were there last year and there again this year.

Did you have a prize pack with this? I'll go with 3.

Give us the real 411 on this buck, stx. I'm old and should go to bed. You've said you thought, the biologist believed and 'just yet'.

You would off on some of those guesses...just saying...not saying high or low or correct on any of them yet
But you get the first waffles off the griddle since you have posted guesses, changed guesses, had your wife correct you and changed back to your first guesses all in the same thread today.

No I haven't. I made my guess. Then relayed the wife's guess. Nothing more or less. Especially waffles. Other than the fact that I stink at aging deer from photos.

Still going to say this guy was later middle aged and was taken due to his short tines when compared to the rest of the age class.

Inside width 21

His body is healthy but he shows few signs of age aside from the face and the stubby stickered antlers. I would think an older deer with those features would wear it more on his body. Of course seeing him Interact with other deer and how he moves is better than pictures.

So I'm guessing this is the deer he ground checked. All the guesses are in, spill the beans.

Great thread! Thanks!

non-typical STX

I lost satellite internet signal this morning for a few hours and had to leave for a while. So here is what I have on the buck for score numbers. I had to re-add and re-do some measurements due to not believing the numbers myself. After looking closely at several more pictures I could see where I and several others missed tine length. His points go several directions and have bends that make it difficult to judge tine length. Those bends in the tine hid a lot of length. It took lots of photos at different angles for me to see the tine lengths.
His inside spread was 21 5/8"
Rt ......... Left
MB 24.3 . 24.6 -.3
C1 4.2 .... 4.2
C2 4.0 .... 4.0
C3 4.0 .... 3.7 -.1
C4 3.5 .... 3.6 -.1
G1 2.6 .... 3.1 -.3
G2 8.6 .... 7.2 -1.4
G3 7.3 .... 6.0 -1.3
G4 3.4 .... 4.4 -1.0
NT 6.0 .... 2.5
NT 1.3 .... 2.0
NT 2.1
Ttl 72.1" . 66.1"-4.7

Right side 72.1"
Left side. 66.1"
Spread... 21.5"
Gross... 159.7"


Side to side deducts -4.7"

NT points total was 14.1"

When I get the jawbone I will post photos of it to show his age. I never looked in his mouth to age him since I shot him as a 3 yr old based off my guess and ranch employees age guesses on him.

His N.T. net was 155.0"
His Typ. net was 126.7"

Thanks for putting those numbers up. I can understand what you mean by the curves adding some inches.

Curious to see the jawbone. Not that I have that much experience (any) with aging by jaw bones, but curious to see if it is closely aligned to what you were thinking. His body seemed bigger than a 3yo, but maybe its just because of the excellent range conditions this year down there.

I am curious also since he appears older in some pics and then a bit younger in others. I have to really pay attention to more than body size to age on this place with the deer on a year round protein program, aeration of strips, prescribed burning and heavy culling/management on all age classes. They had 15" of rain in Sept and it has rained in Oct. It rained just over an inch this past week and it looks like spring now. It would be very difficult for a buck to get by that looked like that as 3 or even 4 yr old last year or year before. Last couple of years I hunted down there with them they were pretty much spot on with their age guess vs. actual age by jawbone or history on the deer when I showed them photos of deer I had seen (with my guess for age). You can not look at antlers when trying to judge age till after you have an age to start on this ranch.
Here is a buck I saw last year and then again this year. While no one can be 100% sure it is the same buck I feel certain it is based on what I can see in these 2 pics.

You think he was a 2.5yo last year? Talking about the drop tine deer in the above picture, not the original deer....if that deer is a 2.5 yo buck this year he will be a stud in a couple years! Even if he is 3.5 yo this year, he will still be a stud.

4.5, 20, 130

Thanks for the update, stx. This has been a fun thread.

Other than age I wasn’t far off

Was a couple of you close on score and some on age....if my age guesses are correct and my score is close. When I see the jawbone and get time to score him again..you may be the only one correct.

I agree that the double drop tine buck appears to be the same as the one pictured above. Forehead stripe, throat patch, black line on brisket, ear coloration and pattern, as well as shape of mainframe of rack. Unbelievable explosion year over year. I'm not the expert you are, but I find the difference in antler color interesting. May just be dry year vs wet year.

Age and genetics play a part in antler color IMO. IME a lot of younger bucks seem to have lighter colored antlers then turn darker with age in many areas. Some young bucks can have dark antlers also. Also it was a dry day sunny day last year in the first photo and a dark/overcast damp day in the second photo. That plays into antler color also. In both photos he is almost standing in the same spot. He came from the same direction each year and at the same time of the year.

the first buck, the wide one w/ 15 pts

3.5
22" spread
148"

8, 145

Finally got pics of him jawbones today.

I sure missed him by a bunch...a few more years on good feed...WOW

Seeing a deer on here in camera pics or nighttime cam photos is difficult to judge them even with a lot of pics. Seeing them live around other bucks makes it much easier to judge for age. I still had to get more opinions on him even seeing him live that first morning.