Well, over the last few years, a couple buddies and I have started to pay attention more tithe deer brought in to one of my buddies processing shop. He processes 800-1000 deer every year, and one common thing we've come up with in aging deer, is nothing works for aging deer consistently. I killed a 140lb field dressed, 119.5" 10 pt this year that I know for a fact was 6.5, through years of trail photos. And his teeth showed 5.5-6.5. Then, we might see a 180lb field dressed 3 yr old (teeth) come in with 4.5"+ base mass, 140". It's actually crazy the variances in body size to teeth wear, to body appearance, to mass, to other aging characteristics. The only true statement is that you cannot age a deer in any one way. Period.
O2outdoors, or however it's spelled, put a bizarre post on a thread the other day, referring to body weight. And had a 10lb increment per age. That's ridiculous logic. As I said, I've seen multiple by the hundreds that are 4.5+ with body weights under 150, and the opposite for 3 yr olds with body weights over 170. I believe it takes a trained eye to just naturally point out an age of a trail cam photo buck, or on hoof buck, and to give an at best guess of age. They are all over the board once they reach 3.5 and older.
