Why aging from just one picture is tough

Same deer, same camera, moments apart and the pics show a 1-2 yo difference in age, in my opinion.

My son saw this deer, thought he looked on the younger side of 5, I saw him (with my very eager and disappointed brother who didn’t get to shoot him) and I agreed he was younger than 5. Thought he was rutted down but still in that middle aged category and not fully mature. Told my brother he could be really cool in a year or two. He agreed.

What do you think his age is?

Most people think they are better looking than they really are. Same with aging deer. I’m pretty good right up until the spots are gone.

Tuff pic to go from small and black and white.

I think most people who really try to age deer and manage for shooting mature bucks under age by a year or so as they hope the deer has more potential and is still young and don't want to make a mistake. I find myself doing it.

Like I said tuff make a call from just what is provided but he looks possibly mature/post mature to me.

Yep. I've had what seemed to be nice ones on camera and would be set on taking that buck, only to see him in person and be disappointed. I don't rely on the game camera as much as when I first started using them.

I know you can afford a decent TC Texas Buckeye, how come your pics always suck? Very hard to age from poor quality pics......

PP, this is a pic from my cell phone, how I get the pics sent to me via my high dollar cameras

I am not asking for an exact age, just trying to show how two pics of the same buck look quite different moments apart. My thoughts on trail cam aging is that it sucks for the most part except for very old and very young. In the middle it can be very difficult and that’s where time in stand and watching a deer can show more than any pic will. We all know that.

That’s all this is really trying to highlight.

My experience has been the opposite......with good pics that show loose skin under jaw. Calluses on knees. Gray face. Large tarsal glands. But they need to be uploaded and decent quality to be useful. Daylight is a plus, lol.

"except for very old and very young".....

I agree, if you can get a pic of a deer with sagging skin, calloused knees, gray face, large tarsal glands, yes it can be easy to say that deer is old.

But what happens when you see some but not all the signs of age? what happens when you have really healthy deer like most of us did this spring and want to know how old that deer is? Pics can be tough. I don't remember seeing the number of "whats his age" posts as we did this summer, mostly due to deer being healthy, fat, and looking bigger than they would on a normal or subpar year.