"Oh, so you are a REAL biologist that can tell just by looking at a picture?"
I can give an educated opinion. I can tell you that deer isn't ten years old and isn't even a post prime individual. There isn't one single characteristic from any of those pictures that say otherwise. You want to see a post prime mule deer specimen look at the cover of MDF this month and tell me what that deer has in common with this deer?
" I understand that using the lower jaw is guess work at best when all the permanent teeth come in, but the fact that you question "science" and "technology" is laughable!"
You don't get it. I am not questioning it I am telling you how it is. You have bought into this Dr Doolittle mentality that your state governments need you to buy into. And the reason it is there is there is too much money at risk in having to tell the general public "I don't know". Labs know this and they take advantage of it. Go pull your tooth out and send it to a lab and let them tell you how old you are. I would love to see the response. I've seen x-ray studies, counting rings, decay studies, and every one of these people say they have the answer for the authorities but I am telling you right now they don't. And if you haven't sat and watched how science is done and marketed you won't understand that the BUSINESS of science is about backing up what people with money want to hear.
" When was the last time you sent in a known sample to a lab to be tested? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? Things change, try and keep up."
Every year. I already have antelope teeth from this year I have to send in. We send all the teeth from where I mule deer hunt each year.