Aging Whitetails on the hoof
Whitetail Deer
I need all the help I can get on this. I don't know if I get nervous and mis age deer or what's going on. Lol!
I look for the belly line , an older WT buck has a paunch , the legs appear short , shoulders and hams rounded , a younger buck looks more like a greyhound or thouroughbred racehorse .Antlers are not the best indicator but a lot of mass at base , but not my go to ID .
It’s a really inexact science doing it on the hoof in a shooting situation. 5 and 6 year olds are pretty obvious. But the line is easy to blur sometimes between 3 and 4 and 4 and 5. At least in my area.
If you wanna be real close, you need multiple years of history and trail cams.
That, and send off the teeth for every buck. Knowing age makes it easier down the road
VA MTNS gave you some very good visual clues.
A 1.5 - 2.5 yr old buck will look like a teenaged athlete. He'll look a bit leggy, his back will be straight and will have a noticeable thinness where it meets the chest. He'll also have a waist (think of a 2 yr old pointer's waist).
A 3 yr old will have a more well developed (obvious) neck; his chest may be deeper and his shoulders will be more pronounced.
A 4 yr old will be more fully developed and he may begin to develop a bit of a pot belly; his lower neck will look like it ends at the lower edge of the brisket.
At 5 his shoulders and chest will be much deeper; he will often show some sort of "jowel"- like a 50-55 yr old guy, you will probably notice something like a sway back. His muzzle may also show some sort of graying.
The 5, 6 and older bucks also seemed to walk with a bit of "bad@$$" attitude when they saw lesser deer.
Those were some of the things I looked for when we were on a S TX trophy lease. Hope it helped.
Any thoughts on this bucks age?
If it makes me grab my bow, I’m engaged. Sometimes it takes years of having deer in front of you. Where I hunt, it’s usually seconds you have to make that assessment. Time will learn you.
All you can do is take a educated Guess. Yes you can tell the difference between a young deer and a old deer, but pinpointing a age, no. You need to take teeth and age them, only way to know.
Here you go, from the National Deer Association (formally QDMA). BC
Timex you're exactly right, in the mountains we actually have two types of deer, those descended from the native, remnant population, and those descended from Northern whitetails purchased from Wisconsin in the '50s. They actually rut at different times so they are still somewhat separated. The Noethern strain bucks are the long, lean bruisers and weigh heavy when mature, shading and sometimes exceeding 200#LW . The natives are darker coated, shorter, stockier and usually top out at 180# . Of course they're interbreeding and you can't always "label" them but that's the origin of the two phenotypes
Charlie Rehor coined the term “ no doubt buck” as in, you know it when you see it. If I have to think about whether it’s mature enough or big enough, 9/10 times he’s not.
When you have a guy like Don Higgins whose only pursuit is whitetails for the last 40 years and who also owned a whitetail farm say it's impossible to age deer on the hoof....I'm gonna go with what he says. As he says, you're 1.5,2.5 yes you can but after that you need to have history.
There are going to be some huge blocky deer that you can say "mature" but that's about it. Some deer at 6.5 look lean like a different 3.5 would be. Some mature giant deer can weigh less guts in than others guts out. They're just unique animals.
For the 106 professional users, the average overall accuracywas 36%. User scores ranged from 16% to 56%.
https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/wsb.359
age these two 10 points, I took in 2019.... both aged via cementum annuli
Before aging on the hoof I prefer to kill and skin them first:)
I like to age them hanging in my garage.
Walk around work sometime and start guessing their age. I have guys working for me that look 21 and are 30. Some look mid 40s and aren’t even out their 20s. You can probably be close 50% of the time. It’s all a guess. Even using tooth wear. Some people have perfect teeth forever, some rotting out of their heads early. The only way to know history. Even then you can be a year or more off.
Belly line. Also I have heard that antlers circumference at the base is a good indicator. That said judging that accurately on the hoof is really difficult without a whole lot of experience taking mature bucks and then getting them accurately aged to see if you were correct.
Charlie Rehor coined the term “ no doubt buck” as in, you know it when you see it. If I have to think about whether it’s mature enough or big enough, 9/10 times he’s not.
I was in a large hunting club for years. Many three year and up bucks were brought in and aged by a biologist. It’s not easy to age even when the buck is at the skinning rack and you can touch it.
One and two year olds are fairly easy to age.
Old fella.
Old fella.
We have a small size farm by Missouri standards. We mostly harvest does. I’ve had the opportunity to see some bucks mature to old age it’s beautiful to see. Then a neighbor will kill him with a rifle.
My personal opinion of aging on hoof without knowing the deer's actual age by an identifying feature after his 4th year is purely guessing... After they loose that typical racehorse look of 3-year olds like the half rack 4x photo I posted above on Nov 27th, they gain a little more weight becoming a little blockier with maybe a little pot belly and swayback after 4 but after that is just guessing without that identifying feature, although rack characteristic could be an identifying feature... Deer are individuals and like humans age differently...
Heck in my area they're lucky to make it to 4 and only a few make it older...
Happen to run across this yesterday but didn't download but thought some might be interested:
https://www.buckscore.com/
I agree with pat on this one....."You know as soon as you see it"
been hunting a big mature buck for 3 yrs now ....i don't have to look through the bino's to evaluate....you know.
I saw him with a younger buck last Sat....the younger buck was not exactly a runt either...but the difference is obvious.
Big chested, big neck that just blends...chest bigger than hind quarter etc...Here in PA our buck often don't get to live that long....when they do?....you'll know it.
THE DOE IN THE BACKGROUND IS HUGE
THE DOE IN THE BACKGROUND IS HUGE
Dang, those dudes are BRUTES! I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they both are older than three...8^)))
Dang , those are some big ol boys !
Did you take those pics, Lloyd?? If so, fantastic job!!
That top one doesn't even have a neck... Shame about the rack though...
Those look like Canadian bucks???
t-roy, they were taken from my van. Zbone, the buck with the screwed up rack, I had him by my blind the year before. when I took the pic I told people that with his size and messed up rack that no other buck will mess with him. A few days later at sundown he was across the gravel from the farm I hunted. he was with a doe and another 8 pointer came over and whooped up on him and took the doe.
that buck was the same size as the messed up rack buck.
Wow...
So we can assume those are Iowa bucks then?
3 different ages
3 different ages
this guy was on the other side of the field every time I drove by
I wish I would of weighed this one. way over 200 lbs dressed
I wish I would of weighed this one. way over 200 lbs dressed
Dandy buck, Lloyd. With a recurve to boot!
You also seem to have a knack for taking great photos, as well! Thanks for sharing them.
My last deer. I usually shoot the small bucks with my bow and the big ones with my camera.
Lloyd
Mind blown. Incredible, Lloyd....wow.
For sure, there are “no doubters”, but once he reaches 4 yrs. old, I think it’s just a guessing game.
Jack - CONGRATS on your bucks...
Was looking at your bows posted, they look different, curious of models, the first one with the beautiful nontypical buck with mass kinda looks shaped like a 48" Bear Super Mag (I had one once) the other am not sure... Has a flat shelf, so am guessing a vintage bow?
Zbone, it is a Rodney Wright stalker 46" recurve. I always used short bows, because I used to shoot of my 4 wheeler or when I would sit on the ground, or my chair. Super mag, I have one of those also. the last picture I have a 56" pronghorn
Dang Lloyd! Not only are you an accomplished traditionalist you take damn good pics! I'd love to see more of your dead deer and bow pics, and on the hoof pics!
