Mid Western Buck age?.?.?.?.?....

[AT Hiker]

So, serious question is; How accurate, in your opinion, is tooth wear aging in the heavy Agricultural mid West? Alfalfa, corn and beans are for sure less demanding than some of these TN hardwood mast crops on a deers choppers.

I've seen some huge bodied bucks aged at the famous "3.5yr" mark, but top the scales North of 200lb pounds with above average racks.
We are told, it's the soil stupid that's why those bucks grow bigger than ours. Possible, sure.

My point is, what if these grain fed bucks are indeed older than what most think?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[fairchaser]

I believe so yes. I killed a buck last season in Iowa and he had a huge body and great rack. Having seen young deer and even killed some I would age at 2.5, this buck definitely went to the next level in body and antlers. Our local hunting friend even said he was at least 3.5. But, when I pulled his jawbone, his tooth wear was lighter than I expected when compared to TN 3.5 yo.deer. I still aged him at 3.5 but concluded that their food sources were much less abrasive than ours.

 

[Jmed]

One of the main differences in our deer and Midwestern deer is the jump in body and antler size between age classes. The jump from 2-3 and 3-4, in body and antler size is much greater than what we see on average around here. I hunt Western KY, and we have 3, even 4 years of pics of individually identifiable bucks and still argue on their age. The one I took this year absolutely blew up and I am not convinced that he wasn't a 3.5 year old. brought him back home and several of my buddies said he was the biggest bodied deer they had ever seen. He was absolutely the heaviest I have ever killed, but based on pics I know for a fact he was not over 4.5 when I got him. So yes AT, I would agree that some of these bucks get improperly aged

 

[Winchester]

Tooth wear is much less needed in bucks 3.5 and younger, its when they get older the wear is main indicator used to age them.

 

[Grnwing]

I am sure that could contribute to some being aged younger than they actually are. I know a lot of our big Wisconsin deer match the trail camera data. I think it is important to remember that deer do love those ag fields but do not solely feed on that year around and browse on a variety of foods all throughout the year. However, it would be interesting to look at captive deer that are fed a soft diet and look at their teeth compared to a wild deer and see if there is any difference in wear.

 

[Os2 Outdoors]

So, serious question is; How accurate, in your opinion, is tooth wear aging in the heavy Agricultural mid West? Alfalfa, corn and beans are for sure less demanding than some of these TN hardwood mast crops on a deers choppers.

I've seen some huge bodied bucks aged at the famous "3.5yr" mark, but top the scales North of 200lb pounds with above average racks.
We are told, it's the soil stupid that's why those bucks grow bigger than ours. Possible, sure.

My point is, what if these grain fed bucks are indeed older than what most think?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What if they just grow faster an fatter with all that extra grain?



Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

 

[AT Hiker]

What if they just grow faster an fatter with all that extra grain?



Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

I'm sure that's a factor to as KY bucks just a mile or so across the TN state line appear to be "well fed", as opposed to Ft Campbell bucks that have substantial racks and noticeably smaller body frames.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk