New guy this week- 3.5 or 4.5?

[docg]

This guy just showed up. How old do y'all think he is?
To me, he looks 3.5 in the daylight pic and 4.5 in the other. Either way, he's a great deer. I'm gonna hold off and hope he makes it til next year. Should be a giant then.

 

[megalomaniac]

tough call...

based on pics alone, I'd lean toward 3.5

but this time of the year, a 4.5 will have lost a lot of weight if your rut was back in November.

 

[Vermin93]

Age = shooter!

 

[BuckHunter511]

3.5
BSK made a post on how to age on the hoof with lots of detail and pictures, check it out man!

 

[in the dog house]

3.5

 

[megalomaniac]

3.5
BSK made a post on how to age on the hoof with lots of detail and pictures, check it out man!

BSK pics were based on aging immediately prerut.

And he will tell you, bucks will look completely different that those pics during summer and postrut.

Aging deer isn't as simple as looking at some pics and comparing. You also have to take into account time of year, timing of rut, etc.

Just like jawbones, it's about 50% art and 50% science.

 

[docg]

tough call...

based on pics alone, I'd lean toward 3.5

but this time of the year, a 4.5 will have lost a lot of weight if your rut was back in November.

That's kind of where I am with the thinking. I've read and re-read BSK's aging post. The daylight pick looks like a 3.5. He's got long legs relative to the body. I truly think it is a 3.5, but if he's been running for a month, he may have slimmed down significantly. I'd love to see what he looks like next year. In this pick, he will score 125-130 (I believe). There is a lot of hunting pressure where I hunt and he just showed up, so my fear is that I may never see him again after this week.

 

[Boone 58]

4.5 me thinks

 

[TheLBLman]

3 1/2 or 4 1/2?
Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

Aging deer isn't as simple as looking at some pics and comparing. You also have to take into account time of year, timing of rut, etc.

Just like jawbones, it's about 50% art and 50% science.

Very true.
Even the best experienced deer agers are often a year off (when the birth year is actually known) in aging 3 1/2 or older bucks.

There seems to be more a tendency to underage via guessing a 5 1/2 to be a 4 1/2, less errors made the younger the deer, more errors the older.