Looking for someone to age a deer in Henderson County

[JoeVaquero]

My son shot a buck Friday evening and we couldn't find it. We recovered it Saturday morning. It's an old deer, but I'd like to get someone with some experience to look at it. Any recommendations?

 

[cbhunter]

Your best bet is to pull and clean lower jaw bone and attach the pics. There are some guys on here really good with that. As far as just looking at a dead deer, it's just guess work.

Great deer, congrats to both of you

 

[DoubleRidge]

Don't know anyone in the area that can age a deer? But congratulations! Nice buck!

 

[tndeerman]

Nice deer

 

[TX300mag]

What part of Henderson Co? @DeerCamp

 

[TN Larry]

Your best bet is to pull and clean lower jaw bone and attach the pics. There are some guys on here really good with that. As far as just looking at a dead deer, it's just guess work.

Great deer, congrats to both of you

^^^^^^This

 

[TX300mag]

Congrats to your son on a great buck by the way!

 

[redblood]

If you want an accurate age, you need to order a kit off deerage.com. Too many variables in aging by tooth wear

 

[JoeVaquero]

What part of Henderson Co? @DeerCamp

Very northern part of the county. He's getting the jaw removed and cleaned up. I'll try to post some pics of it in a few days.

 

[DeerCamp]

Very northern part of the county. He's getting the jaw removed and cleaned up. I'll try to post some pics of it in a few days.

Just remember, it's always a minimum age. You'll be able to get a group consensus here at least.

 

[cbhunter]

Very northern part of the county. He's getting the jaw removed and cleaned up. I'll try to post some pics of it in a few days.

Sounds like it's not too far from my area. I'm southern Carroll myself

 

[redblood]

Very nice btw

 

[MUP]

Definitely should still be good to eat with the cold temps tho! Several capable of aging jaw bone teeth on here if you can post some pics.

 

[mike243]

Great deer, is that ticks all over it?

 

[fairchaser]

Looking at the deer, 99% chance he will be 3.5, 4.5 or 5.5. After looking at the lower jaw bone, that can be narrowed down. If you want scientific proof, send the lower incisors off for cementum annuli analysis. Let us know what you find. Great deer and congratulations.

 

[TN Larry]

Very nice deer by the way and look forward to seeing the jawbones. It's nearly impossible to age a dead deer but looks to be an older deer. It has quite a bit of mass as well which is also an indicator of an older deer.

 

[CBU93]

Great deer, is that ticks all over it?

Cockleburrs if I had to guess…close to the river I would bet. Maybe on an island.

 

[BSK]

Cementum annuli will NOT give you a more accurate age than toothwear. The accuracy rate is no better (and a little worse) than toothwear.

 

[redblood]

When i got intereted in tracking the age of bucks i did a ton of research. I found pros and cons of every method. I watched countless videos. While, many did not like the hassle, wxpense and wait associated with the cementum annuli method, every reaource i found credited with being the most accurate method.

Here is a resource we use in our wildlife management classes

https://deerlab.com/blog/how-to-age-a-deer

 

[redblood]

aging deer by tooth wear has too many variables. I think its a good resource, but often a subjective guess that does not consider different diets and malocclusion

 

[backyardtndeer]

Great deer, is that ticks all over it?

Wondered if it might be warts.

Nice buck. Congratulations to your son.

 

[BSK]

When i got intereted in tracking the age of bucks i did a ton of research. I found pros and cons of every method. I watched countless videos. While, many did not like the hassle, wxpense and wait associated with the cementum annuli method, every reaource i found credited with being the most accurate method.

Here is a resource we use in our wildlife management classes

https://deerlab.com/blog/how-to-age-a-deer

Take a look at WHO touts cementum annuli. Those associated with the business. Look at who gives accurate analysis of the method. The best field research biologists going. Now if you're looking at deer from the North or Midwest, I would feel very confident with cementum annuli. But in the South and Southeast, lower accuracy than toothwear. Plus, the errors in cementum annuli run both ways - too young and too old. Toothwear rarely ages deer too old.

Personally, I want to see ALL the information. I want to see multiple pictures of that buck, from various angles, as close to the rut as possible (for field judging). I want to see toothwear. I want to see cementum annuli. But even with all that data, is the age accurate? Maybe. No method is perfectly accurate. But I'll go with either the average of those methods, or the closest two out of three.

 

[DeerCamp]

Take a look at WHO touts cementum annuli. Those associated with the business. Look at who gives accurate analysis of the method. The best field research biologists going. Now if you're looking at deer from the North or Midwest, I would feel very confident with cementum annuli. But in the South and Southeast, lower accuracy than toothwear. Plus, the errors in cementum annuli run both ways - too young and too old. Toothwear rarely ages deer too old.

Personally, I want to see ALL the information. I want to see multiple pictures of that buck, from various angles, as close to the rut as possible (for field judging). I want to see toothwear. I want to see cementum annuli. But even with all that data, is the age accurate? Maybe. No method is perfectly accurate. But I'll go with either the average of those methods, or the closest two out of three.

I've sent a couple deer off for CI testing. Probably won't do it again because it just isn't worth the cost.

What led me to sending them off was because 2 years in a row, TWRA aged a mature buck as 2.5 based on tooth wear.

One deer was 198lb 8 point with 5.5" bases and 130.5" overall - I have trail cam pics of him at 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 (the year I killed him). Distinctive rack, 100% certain its the same buck.

The other deer was a 7 point with 17" inside spread, and weighed 204 lbs. Wife shot it. No cam pics, but a big deer.

TWRA aged both at 2.5
CI testing came back at 4.5yo for both.

I no longer let TWRA tooth age my deer - if they aren't going to take the full picture into account (weight, antlers, body structure, tooth aging) the data is useless with the exception of simple long term trends.

 

[Dennis]

I no longer let TWRA tooth age my deer - if they aren't going to take the full picture into account (weight, antlers, body structure, tooth aging) the data is useless with the exception of simple long term trends.

From a management perspective, I thought the only purpose of age data was simple long term trends. What other uses are there for it?

If you're talking about satisfying a hunter's curiosity for example, I'm not sure the accuracy is good enough with any of the methods to matter. Our field judgments are probably as accurate as the rest of the methods.

I figure the best we can do is tell a yearling from a 2.5 with a fairly high degree of accuracy, a 2.5 from a 3.5 with a bit less accuracy, and a deer older than 3.5 with less accuracy yet. Telling a 4.5 from a 5.5 , etc, is a fool's errand without some history with the animal to rely on.

 

[BSK]

What led me to sending them off was because 2 years in a row, TWRA aged a mature buck as 2.5 based on tooth wear.

Ahhh, now that's a different story. First buck I ever killed off my place back in '87 was aged as a yearling. Classic 90-class 8-point. You can't misjudge yearling and 2 1/2 because of tooth replacement of the premolars, but they did.

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

I've sent a couple deer off for CI testing. Probably won't do it again because it just isn't worth the cost.

What led me to sending them off was because 2 years in a row, TWRA aged a mature buck as 2.5 based on tooth wear.

One deer was 198lb 8 point with 5.5" bases and 130.5" overall - I have trail cam pics of him at 2.5, 3.5 and 4.5 (the year I killed him). Distinctive rack, 100% certain its the same buck.

The other deer was a 7 point with 17" inside spread, and weighed 204 lbs. Wife shot it. No cam pics, but a big deer.

TWRA aged both at 2.5
CI testing came back at 4.5yo for both.

I no longer let TWRA tooth age my deer - if they aren't going to take the full picture into account (weight, antlers, body structure, tooth aging) the data is useless with the exception of simple long term trends.

We quit pulling jawbones for this reason. Granted, they weren't being aged by TWRA, but they were being looked at by knowledgeable individuals. All of them were were being called either 2.5 or 3.5. We knew that to be incorrect on a couple of them so we quit fooling with it.

 

[JoeVaquero]

Wondered if it might be warts.

Nice buck. Congratulations to your son.

Cockleburs

 

[JoeVaquero]

@DeerCamp came and looked at the deer today. He's a great guy and gave us a lot of information. He gave his estimate based on tooth wear, and also his guess based on the mass of the antlers and skull size, shape etc. Posting some jaw pics to see what others in the group think.

 

[backyardtndeer]

@DeerCamp came and looked at the deer today. He gave his estimate based on tooth wear, and also his guess based on the mass of the antlers and skull size, shape etc. Posting some jaw pics to see what others in the group think.View attachment 162054View attachment 162056View attachment 162055

From what I can see in the pics, they look pretty warn to me. At least 4.5.

 

[JoeVaquero]

Sounds like it's not too far from my area. I'm southern Carroll myself

I'm about 4 miles or so south of the Carroll county line on 104n.