Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Help me age my deer

Seven months later I climbed down the hill to recover the jawbone I'd not thought to inspect while quartering. It was 40 feet farther downhill, but I found the skull right next it and the sawed surface appears to match my antler plate; I'm confident I have the correct teeth.

I've looked at a few web resources, can't decide mine's age with confidence. What say you?

Keep in mind that this is from a humble blacktail, but the best-endowed we've taken from the ranch in 50 years.
Antler bases measure about 4 3/4, right among average with high-Book racks- so he's probably the same age as those boys.

I'm a white-tail hunter, have never seen a blacktail, and am just making an educated guess, but......
I'd make it 4 1/2 years or 5 1/2 years.

But somebody more knowledgable of the species can be more certain.

At least 5 1/2...

That deer is 4 1/2. Look at the dentine (the brown stuff between the layers of enamel) on the last molar. The last molar actually has three cusps to it. When the dentine line from the last cusp of the last molar curves around and joins the dentine from the next-to-last crest, the deer is 4 1/2. At 5 1/2, there would be more wear on the anterior cusp of the third (which is actually the fourth...the first is vestigial) pre-molar. The important teeth from an aging standpoint are the last molar (because the last cusp of the last molar is the last to fully erupt from the gumline when the deer is young) and the third pre-molar, because it is the youngest tooth in the jaw. The pre-molars are replaced with adult teeth. The third pre-molar has three cusps on it at birth and at about 18 months is replaced by the permanent premolar, which has two cusps.

I'm honored to be the recipient of your third post in over a year. Come visit more often. Your background suggests you have a lot to contribute to the 'Fire (we need more salesmen ).

mac-

The knowledge I possess concerning the blacktail could likely fit in a thimble. Given that, I don't need to be hit over the head to understand that's a BIG blacktail.

Nice buck!

That it is. And so, I'm guessing, is the buck you're holding in your avatar.

I can with absolute certainty tell you that deer is not EVER going to get any older.

4 1/2! You would need a microscope to dispute Marshrat and even then I believe you would only prove him right.

My two friends guessed 5.5 and 6.5 if he were a TX whitetail.
It is interesting that biologists disagree a lot when field judging teeth.
If that deer was 4.5, can you imagine what he would have become at 6.5?

stumpy

I'm being forced into the 4.5 camp, from web pics and comments here. 'They' say that 5.5+ should be showing some serious wear- badly rounded crests and significant cupping.

But that brings up the question of why we find so few bucks that reach even 4.5 years. Known hunting pressure is minimal; poaching must be also, taking into account ownerships, access, distances, and personal observation. California's constitutionally protected cougars come to mind as a possibility.

Given the wear on the first molar, I go into the 5.5 year old camp. If you want a definitive answer, tank an incisior to your local DFW office and see if they will age it for you. 1Minute

I still say 5 1/2--if he were 4 1/2, there would still be a prominent remnant of the lingual crest on the first molar. However, the wear pattern doesn't look like what I am used to seeing in whitetails and desert mule deer. I can't imagine that blacktails are using coarser forage, but confess that I have no experience with them...

Forbs spring & summer, oak leaves and acorns summer, fall & winter, and bay leaves when times are tough. Poison oak leaves when they're young & dumb!

One thing to keep in mind. The ground that deer was living on had some bearing on how its teeth look.

Just a for instance. Here in what is called the Post Oak belt of Texas there is a lot of loose sand. Any acorn or what ever that hits the ground or low growing forbes are covered with sand.
The teeth of deer living here look older than they really are from grinding against that sand. I have been told so and shown so in comparative exams from our local TP&W biologist.

BCR

Boggy, years ago, I looked at a series of jaws taken from the Aransas Refuge that were alleged to show more wear per year due to the amounts of sand that covered everything down there. Charles DeYoung and I spent a lot of time examining them and came to the conclusion that the researcher that had sampled them was just dealing with an aged population structure that did not jibe with what he expected to see.

While I was working in Kansas several years later, I had a small pot of money to have a lot of teeth from coyotes, bobcats and deer sectioned and stained to make it possible to count the annular rings. I asked Caleb Glazener to send me several of the incisors from some of those jaws to include in the material that I sent off. Bottom line was, aging those deer by counting annular rings matched aging using tooth wear almost exactly. As I recall, there was only one of 13 that didn't match and the difference was only one year. Therefore, I am leery of claims that coarse forage or dust and sand affect wear patterns that much, especially in the first seven years of life. I have also looked at teeth from penned deer that have been fed "soft" feed for all their lives, and wear patterns from those deer are no different from those of their wild counterparts...

mud you may be right. All I can relate is what I was told, shown and what the man said. He is supposed to know and I don't make a claim to being an expert on the subject.

One thing I do know for certain sure is that a combination of tough Bahia grass and sand will wear out a cows mouth before her time.

BCR

I still say 4 1/2; at 4 1/2 the lingual crests on the first molar are almost worn away and at 5 1/2 they are worn away. Since they are still visible in this jaw, I think 4 1/2. Also at 5 1/2 the dentine crests on all molars is wider than the enamel...there are a couple crests where the enamel is still wider than the dentine. But it is correct that the only true way to age deer is to count the annuli from cross sections.