Another How Old Thread

[venado]

I'm not confident of this aging by "teeth" business if we are referring to the tooth wear method (Severinghouse). Many use it, including me, but from what I read it really is at best an educated guess. Here is what a biologist says: "After a deer reaches 3 years its tough to accurately age. The percentages drop precipitously even for trained biologists." In tests with known aged jaws the accuracy of supposed experts is pretty poor. The results of the study showed that only 42.9% were aged correctly out of a 126 known age sample.

Recently I sent off a tooth for what is supposed to be an accurate age method (cementum anlysis). On a 74 deer known age sample that method yielded an accuracy of 85% and the errors were only off by one year. The report on the deer shown below is due back by July 12. This deer was killed on my place by my good friend Chris.

Make your guess and I will report what I get back from the laboratory.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/3688598776_d4f32d4f43.jpg?v=0

[southtexas]

Purty nice old eight. That's my guess: "old". :) How wide was he?

[Altjaeger]

Purty nice old eight. That's my guess: "old". :) How wide was he?

LOL, I agree. I'll call it6 1/2 to 7 1/2.

[ncboman]

Without seeing the entire deer, feet included, I'm guessing 3 1/2.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

Oh NO! That one just lost his spots a week before that picture was taken!

Alan

(May as well keep my streak alive)

[Bushman]

Do you guys count that right broken brow tine as a point if it is not over an inch long? It might have been when he grew it, but what if it isn't now?

I'm out of my element in judging Texas deer, but I know that you like to grow them older down there. The broad head, the lower angle of the antlers, the angularity of the tines, the beading of the bases, the depth of the stomach and the graying around the face would tell me a buck is over 5 1/2 up here. I'm going to say 6 1/2 years old. The dark antler color tells me that he was rubbing on some trees that stained his antlers, he didn't do a good job of removing the velvet or he didn't spend much time out in the sun. Probably a combination of all of those.

[southtexas]

FWIW, I'd call him a (big!) basic 8 with broken brow tines. I don't believe you can count broken tines in most "official" scoring venues...but then, I've never tried so really don't know.

[dave-t.]

I'd call that a 4+yr old from what I can see.

[Sabre]

4 1/2

[venado]

Here is a bit more to throw in the pot for making a tooth analysis via Severenhous.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2500/3698276429_48cd2ce10c_m.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3493/3698276553_fbb986e7be_m.jpg

[Renegade]

4 years, 7 months, 16 days, 3 hours.... best I can tell from the pic quality!:D

[Smokey]

5 1/2

[pepaw]

I can't tell much from the photo. 5.5?
What did he weigh? And score?

pepaw

[venado]

4 years, 7 months, 16 days, 3 hours.... best I can tell from the pic quality!:D

Actually my "guess" is right there with Renegade, but with the jaw in hand I'm going with 7 hours and 4 minutes..!:rolleyes: It fits the 4 1/2 yo right to a T when looking at a tooth wear chart. However I can't help but look at the other physical features of the buck and knowing the deer of this area intimately I want to make him "old" based on those characteristics. In many cases we see deer for several years before we shoot them so we have a better idea of their age, however in this case, this buck was never seen or appeared on a game cam.

I'm excited to get the results and to know "for sure".

[venado]

Well Smokey gets the "smart guy" prize and pepaw gets second place because he put a question mark after his answer.:D I just got the report and he was 5 1/2 years old.

Severinghous was 4 1/2 so I guess that wasn't too bad but still not correct. The strong antler growth down here tends to come at 5 1/2 and as I said earlier, his body and attitude made me think older than 4 1/2.

[southtexas]

Venado: what did he score and how wide is he? Just trying to keep the ol' eyeballs properly calibrated during the off-season!:)

[venado]

A sales video regarding the method used to age the buck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3oPsy5CN-M

[ncboman]

not buyin it.

What proof is there that the aging method is not in error? :rolleyes:

[venado]

NCB, please read entire thread for reason to have a level of confidence.

[ncboman]

I have and still question the accuracy.

The deer may well have been 5 1/2 but that doesn't make the method 100% accurate.

[venado]

I doubt that many things are 100% accurate and this is not claimed as such by the data shown above in the post. It certainly is more accurate on an extended basis than a guess which is what we do in aging short of a known captive deer.