Aging thread...How old would you guess?

Here is a buck that I will post more pics of after a while. These pics are from the last half of December 2012. From these pics how old do you guess this buck is in these pics and what do you see that makes you guess the age posted? I had no history on this bucks since I had just bought it and this was the very first buck I saw after I bought it. I will post my age guess and what I see later.

I may be way off, but that buck looks 4yrs old to me.

This too, rundown 4yo

I am guessing the rut peaks around mid december there, so these are late rut to post rut pics. His neck muscle shows youth, not real pumped up but if this is post rut by a month that will be gone. Couple things about this deer push me to the 4yo range and those are sway in the back, good gland staining on the hocks, neck going all the way down to the brisket, good shield on the forehead.

He looks like a racehorse though, and that is more typical of a 3yo. Its splitting hairs. He is not 1-2yo, but i don’t see anything that pushes me to say he is a mature deer either. Solidly in the middle age 3-5yo range.

Deer that show some characteristics of a mature deer but look younger in my mind = old, post mature, going down hill, or mature and hurting from the rut.

Just my wag but the forehead jaw line brisket hocks and sloped rump make me think mature and rutted down or older.

Rut in this area of Texas was Mid November to Thanksgiving.

Looks like 3 to me.

4 I’ll go with it , great pics

Ok that does change some things then. Easily a 4yo rutted down. I still dont see the characteristics of a fully mature deer and if he were significantly rutted down and lost a ton of weight we would see some sag to his skin which we dont really see in those pics. The last two where his rump is sloping down do point to him being a little older, but aside from the face and the hocks nothing else looks “really” old on him and those two things can he hit or miss as far as age indicators.

I will say 4yo. Rutted down and still healthy looking. Solid middle age deer

Guessing 3-1/2 years old.

This

3 3/4

Okay, now we add one more year to the aging part. Same buck now in 2013. How old does he look now after 2 yrs of pics. He was a little more of a roamer this year and did not get as many pics as the year before. Pics are from 12-18 to 12-19 on 3 and the one with the torn/broken ear and broken antler was 12-31.

Looks like he went from 3 to 6 in one year

I think hes older. The small rack is probably making some think younger and that is usually true but not always. He also is kind of leggy(younger) and not boxy(older), but some deer just have a different body shape and I think he does. He is just not thick through his body but that can just be from being run down at this time of year. He also does not have a sway in his back or a sag in his belly but once again those are not absolute indicators. What says older is all the hock stainage and hes wide across his chest as he looks at you. Also the face looks older. My eyes have a hard time distinguishing in pics what so many see as callouses on the knees but I think I see them here. His neck also comes into his brisket low. A big indicator for me usually is any sagging of skin under the chin. Most of these pics dont show that real well but I think its there. If I see any sag of skin under the chin I always assume at least 5. His hips skew older as well. This guy is not the "norm" so its a little tough. Im guessing hes at least 5 and then 6. Aging is very hard and I dont claim to be an expert.

Are these deer fed protein year round?

I started in late October 2012 with protein. There was none fed previously. So 2013 that buck was exposed to it year round.

FR, i was just gonna write he’s leggy as well. Beat me to it.

I agree pretty much spot on with FR, leggy 5 in the second set, leggy 4 in the first set.

Thank goodness for the studies out there that say paternal antler phenotype do not predict offspring phenotype!

The doe carries the mass and width and the buck provides the points and conformation in the offspring. This was according to James Kroll back in the early 90's from studies they had done.

So what was your guess on this buck?

Interesting about the buck antler genetics. I have never read that or heard that until now. I wonder if the study has been largely disproven or if the findings have held up to scrutiny or if anyone really cares that much to do another study. Seems would be pretty easy to study in the breeding side of the deer business.

Will add one more year of pics. This is from 2014 and I did not get many pics of them that year. With the mature bucks around the feeders he chose to spend time on the neighbors or at a feeder I was not at that day.
Early November before the rut and these two pics are 1 minute apart. He looks much different in the first pic compared to the second.


Trail cam pics of him late December.

Man his legginess comes out post rut.
Pre-rut/during rut he looks all of his age there. But think him out and he looks quite young again in those B&W pics.


Big tarsal staining and that thick chest of an older deer. Good pic sequence.

Last year of pics of this buck. He was really a regular this year into mid November till I left to go mule deer hunting. He returned right before Christmas then right around New Years he developed hoof rot and I did not see him again. I was going to shoot him with my ML in the late season as he had broken a G2 and a browtine by mid December.

Can't decide... 3 or 4 in the first year but I'm leaning to 4.
I'll say, 4, 5, 6, & 7.

I'm surprised you gave him a pass with the headgear he had even if he was 3 that first year.

Nice sequence of pics. Really neat to see him grow little bits of antler each year and his body slowly grew into his frame as well.
I agree with iluvbigbucks, it is a tough call to say 3 or 4 in the first set, but the last set show a nice mature buck.
I would likely stick with 4 in the first set still given it was post rut, but really enjoyed the series of pics.

I wouldn't have guessed he would have turned into what he did, also it shows what protein feed can do. That last year showed him as a great first time buck for anyone.

Most of your guesses were what I thought when I first saw him in late summer 2012. I had him at 3 or 4. But at the season started and the rut kicked in I thought he looked older, more 4 minimum and likely 5. Which would put him at 7 or 8 the last year. I thought he was more of an 8 yr old that year.