Great MWW video on aging deer

[mainebowhunter]

http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/videos/buck-bedding-areas-and-aging-bucks-on-the-hoof/

Great video...Aaron talking about bedding area. Recap on stuff from last season. And very interesting stuff in regards to aging. 100% agree...aging on the hoof without any history...sometimes we are right, sometimes we are wrong. I know watching MWW over the years and knowing ages of some of the bucks...pretty easy to misjudge.

[mike perry]

Good info

[tgreeno]

It's not as difficult for me, because I have rarely seen a 4 or 5 year old buck. Most of my encounters are 2 & 3 year old's.

[mainebowhunter]

It's not as difficult for me, because I have rarely seen a 4 or 5 year old buck. Most of my encounters are 2 & 3 year old's.

LOL...I get it for sure. But even then, it can be tricky at times telling difference between a 2 & 3 yr old. Thats where Bill was wrong on a couple of these deer. When they were 2 or 3.

[JoeRE]

I agree, Bill nailed that one. I have seen enough outlier bucks to know guessing a buck's age on the hoof, seeing it for the first time, is not much more than a Wild Azz Guess. 2 and 3 year olds are often tricky to tell apart I agree. Late season bucks are VERY tough lots of mature bucks look long and lean like younger bucks.

Add in a year or two of history, you should be pretty confident a person can get the age to within +/- 1 year which to be realistic is pretty good on a fully mature buck that you never probably knew existed the first few years of his life. Cementum aging isn't 100% accurate either.

I have about 40 teeth sent to Matson's lab right now from various deer (no not all mine) and am very curious what will come back. Will probably do a thread on it once I get the info....was told it will be June or so.

[mainebowhunter]

I agree, Bill nailed that one. I have seen enough outlier bucks to know guessing a buck's age on the hoof, seeing it for the first time, is not much more than a Wild Azz Guess. 2 and 3 year olds are often tricky to tell apart I agree. Late season bucks are VERY tough lots of mature bucks look long and lean like younger bucks.

Add in a year or two of history, you should be pretty confident a person can get the age to within +/- 1 year which to be realistic is pretty good on a fully mature buck that you never probably knew existed the first few years of his life. Cementum aging isn't 100% accurate either.

I have about 40 teeth sent to Matson's lab right now from various deer (no not all mine) and am very curious what will come back. Will probably do a thread on it once I get the info....was told it will be June or so.

Really look forward to that post. Bill was within 1yr. The crazy part is those bucks were only 4...world class at 4. Wonder what 5 would have brought? Bill made that decision to pass on 1 buck a couple years back because he thought he was young. Neighbors shot him @ 185". Those are the chances you take I guess.

Trend is that if you see a genetically gifted deer, guys want him to be younger rather than older.

[huntinsonovagun]

Trend is that if you see a genetically gifted deer, guys want him to be younger rather than older.

This is comical to me. What else I've noticed is if a guy shoots a "smaller" buck they want him to be older. It's as if they're trying to justify killing him. "Yeah, he was a really old buck....needed to be taken out of the herd, probably wouldn't have made it through the winter anyway" (as I'm thinking that poor little guy just got weened not long ago )

I feel the more I learn about deer the less confident I am in aging. I feel like I can get within a year or two at best, but it is just an educated guess. I used to think I knew for sure a deer's age up to 4.5- I'm not quite as ignorant as I once was.

[tgreeno]

LOL...I get it for sure. But even then, it can be tricky at times telling difference between a 2 & 3 yr old. Thats where Bill was wrong on a couple of these deer. When they were 2 or 3.

For sure Maine! IMO, telling the difference between a 2 & 3 year old might be tougher than 4 & 5. The sagging midsecion and loose skin below the brisket usually don't happen til 4 and older.

I'm not one of those people that really care how old it is. If it's something I feel like shooting, I'll shoot it!

[mainebowhunter]

LOL...I get it for sure. But even then, it can be tricky at times telling difference between a 2 & 3 yr old. Thats where Bill was wrong on a couple of these deer. When they were 2 or 3.

For sure Maine! IMO, telling the difference between a 2 & 3 year old might be tougher than 4 & 5. The sagging midsecion and loose skin below the brisket usually don't happen til 4 and older.

I'm not one of those people that really care how old it is.If it's something I feel like shooting, I'll shoot it!

Yep. Best way to do it.

[Wlog]

Thanks for sharing Maine!

[JoeRE]

Really look forward to that post. Bill was within 1yr. The crazy part is those bucks were only 4...world class at 4. Wonder what 5 would have brought? Bill made that decision to pass on 1 buck a couple years back because he thought he was young. Neighbors shot him @ 185". Those are the chances you take I guess.

Trend is that if you see a genetically gifted deer, guys want him to be younger rather than older.

Despite what we all say...size matters

Every now and then we see a huge young buck like that pop up. Wonder what percent of the population they are even in "great" big buck areas like southern Iowa. As we all know you need the genetics and nutrition and even that means nothing if they don't live past age 2 or 3. I have seen two or three 2 year old bucks that were in the 130s or close to 140. The only one that I know made it to 3 looked like he would break 170 inches gross. Of course I only aged them on the hoof so who really knows.

As far as the teeth I sent in - yea definitely excited about that. For those who are curious, sending in big batches can be pretty economical. I think I paid $6.50/tooth and the total cost will be split between 4 of us (a good way to make a big batch hint hint!). For small batches its over $10/tooth and at that price I couldn't justify the cost. Those prices are from Matson's. I'm kinda thrifty.

[mainebowhunter]

Really look forward to that post. Bill was within 1yr. The crazy part is those bucks were only 4...world class at 4. Wonder what 5 would have brought? Bill made that decision to pass on 1 buck a couple years back because he thought he was young. Neighbors shot him @ 185". Those are the chances you take I guess.

Trend is that if you see a genetically gifted deer, guys want him to be younger rather than older.

Despite what we all say...size matters

Every now and then we see a huge young buck like that pop up. Wonder what percent of the population they are even in "great" big buck areas like southern Iowa. As we all know you need the genetics and nutrition and even that means nothing if they don't live past age 2 or 3. I have seen two or three 2 year old bucks that were in the 130s or close to 140. The only one that I know made it to 3 looked like he would break 170 inches gross. Of course I only aged them on the hoof so who really knows.

As far as the teeth I sent in - yea definitely excited about that. For those who are curious, sending in big batches can be pretty economical. I think I paid $6.50/tooth and the total cost will be split between 4 of us (a good way to make a big batch hint hint!). For small batches its over $10/tooth and at that price I couldn't justify the cost. Those prices are from Matson's. I'm kinda thrifty.

I am kind of cheap (or thrifty ). So for me, $25-35 to find out if a deer was what I thought it was for age...was not worth the money. But that is MUCH cheaper than I realized.

[JoeRE]

I am kind of cheap (or thrifty ). So for me, $25-35 to find out if a deer was what I thought it was for age...was not worth the money. But that is MUCH cheaper than I realized.

Cheap is to your own determent. Check engine light comes on - keep driving because you don't want to pay someone to check what's wrong. So your engine blows up 500 miles later. Thrifty is spending money only when you see real value. I will spend a lot of money if I see a lot of value. Otherwise you won't see a wooden nickel from me


http://matsonslab.com/logistics/huntersoutfitters/

"Processing charges for samples of 31 or more teeth will be according to our regular price schedule."

The regular price schedule for large batches is: http://matsonslab.com/logistics/prices/

Its a little confusing (give them a call and they will walk you through it) but my final cost was around $6.50/tooth. Plus shipping which wasn't much, used a padded manila envelope.

It was much cheaper than what I expected too hense I finally did this after talking about it for 2-3 years.

[tgreeno]

If I ever thought I shot a 5 year old deer, I would definitely have it aged.

To this point, I don't think I've even seen one while hunting. There is always next season!

[MN Slick]

I've sent 8 sets of teeth from bucks that grossed between 137 and 162 into Matson's and 5 of 8 came back younger than I expected them to be. My brother killed one in 2015 that we had history with that came back at 4.5. Between the history and his body size in 2014, when he was 3.5 per the aging, I would have sworn he was minimum 5.5. I killed one that grossed over 160" in 2015 that came back at 3.5. Granted he got 10" on split tines but a 150" framed 3.5 had it going on. Oldest buck was 7.5 years old.

Assuming cementum aging is accurate my takeaways are: I suck at aging from pictures/sightings and I also suck at aging even with some history.