Need help aging this deer

I'd guess 3.5 like most but you can't always tell by body size. I've had 3 years of pics of a buck, big racked non-T and he never got much bigger than a large doe, probably 130 lbs as a 5-6 year old. I'd bust em, could get EHD, shot by neighbors or just disappear. If I had 1000s of acres it'd be a good one to let grow.

 

Really impossible to be sure without looking at teeth. From the 3 phts and RACK development he is minimum 2 years 6 months more likely 3years 6 mnths. Next year he should have more Mass

 

In MY opinion, I'd give him a pass. Being where you are, with the amount of acreage you have, plus having DBNF on your side, it's gonna take somebody hard core to get in close enough to make a play. Wait until late season to harvest your does. You can't shoot big dear shooting young deer

 

with that rack, does he make good breeding stock?

 

He does look kinda poor in the group of pics....but looks healthy in the last picture.I think he looks like 3.5 just from studying his body size.Past history is really the only sure way to know any bucks age.I would give him a pass ..IF.. you feel good about the hunting pressure around this bucks core area....

 

Im thinking 2.5 or 3.5. Its hard to say 2.5 because of the rack but I had a big 2.5 yo one year that fooled me aswell. heres a picture of him and everyone called me out on the age but I got pretty much rock solid proof imo.

 

how friendly are your neighbors? would they put off this buck for a year or two? nobody shoots it till everybody decides its open season.

 

Deer is 3.5 in November, doesn't have messed up body or ears from fighting. His nose and face are long and not short and aged. He doesn't have a belly up forward - the older ones carry the roundness of the belly all the way to the front legs and he has a skinny young neck. He isn't old and declining and isn't old enough to shoot if you want to shoot a mature deer.

Talk to neighbors and agree to wait until next year on him with the idea going to the stand your not shooting this excellent specimen who will blow up next year and then add more bone the next year.

The deer looks nice now but somebody should take a really good deer next year or the next - worth the price to watch now, find his sheds and maybe take next year. I would love to see this deer 2 years from now when his belly will be sagging all the way to his front legs, shortened snout and swollen neck. You will be lucky if you wait, nobody gets him next year and you get a crack 2022.

Good luck and hope you find the sheds and get him next year or the next - 2 years sheds and 3rd year harvest would be optimal - maybe in 190's 2 years from now. That's management and that's why its not easy - except to calculate what should be done, execution considering neighbors, locking antlers to the death, cars and CWD are more variables out of management control.

I would pay 3500 dollars for a crack at him 2 years from now in velvet early season patterning - 2500 next year. Until my wife said no way!!!

Good luck waiting and hopefully you get the chance on him next year - pass this year and watch for some management does and bucks - then a 175 may step out while your not thinking or doing the right things because it happens that way.

 

If I'm not mistaken. Young deer have short noses, not older deer

 

DBNF, you might roll a 7, if you wait, but you taking a bigger chance on snake eyes.

 

I know a lot of people that get on forums and act like they are almighty and King Kong when it comes to deer hunting and if it isn’t 10+ yrs old it’s not a shooter. Unless you have deer on the farm that are bigger, you’re crazy for letting it walk. Don’t care if it’s 1 or 10 yrs old. If they ain’t there, you can’t kill them. Shoot what you want, but it’s a no brainer IMO.