Have you ever tried to guess the age of your buck?

berto

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LAST EDITED ON Mar-19-04 AT 01:00PM (MST)[p]i guessed the age of my 2003 buck to be 4.5 years.

here is a pic of my buck for comparison to yours...
http://www.hunt101.com/img/069531.jpg[img]

i sent the two lower front teeth to a lab for tooth cementum analysis, and the lab verified the buck's age was 4.5 years.

you don't have to tell me i'm a nerd, i know that already.

well, anyone else?
 
I have a friend, "Imagine that", whom is a Biology major. Supposedly he knows half way what he's doing as far as looking at teeth. My buck from a few years ago was also 4.5 he figured
 
yeah,

i have had fish and game biologists at check stations look at the antlers and the teeth on the lower jaw of some of my other deer and estimate an age. those biologists always give me a hard time if the deer no longer has a lower jaw cuz i had to pack the deer out on my back (duh, i can't eat the lower jaw so why would i carry it out?!?!). i always tell them i know exactly where the lower jaw is laying if they care to hike 3 or 4 miles to go get it.

i understand from the lab that they actually cut the teeth into cross-sections and look at them under a microscope and count cementum rings, kind of like a person can count the rings of a tree to determine its age.
 
Hey Berto
I looked into this last year. We age every deer that comes off our place. For years we had been using tooth wear to age our deer. This past year we harvested two deer that we new for a fact were over 10 years. We knew this because we have nine years worth of film on them. When we went to check the age by the teeth, if we did not know any better, we would have aged these deer in the 6.5 to 7.5 range.
Last year an article came out about how tooth wear is not an effective way to age deer due to many factors I wont list here. Then Cementum came around. From what I have read on this, it is not accurate either. We had considered going to cementum but after reading the accuracy levels, it is no more acurate than the the tooth wear charts. I have a headache.
Thats my two cents



"We must HUNT"
 
SoTX,

glad to see i'm not the only nerd out there in webland.

the article i posted the link to says cementum is 85% accurate, which is much better than the accuracy of looking at the wear on all the teeth on the lower jaw.

it does kind of make my head hurt to think about all this science stuff...which method is better? everyone can decide for themselves, but i think cementum is the better method.
 
Back in 1976 after I got my deer in Craig, Co and was headed home, they (F&G) had a check point at Dinosaur, Co.
There was a Bio. there and asked if he could remove a tooth from the upper jaw, and I saw ok. He cut the tooth from the jaw and then looked at it and said he guess the buck at 3.5 years. It was a 4x4 with eye guards but nothing big. I said is that all he is in age, and this fellow told me that is what he would say without future testings, so just let it go at that.

How acturate he was or is I do not know and don't know if just looking at the tooth would give a person enough knowledge as to age.

Brian
 
FYI...age estimation by teeth is based on tooth replacement and wear. After 3 years all the teeth are replaced so then the wear comes into play. Unless you have examples of known aged deer jaws from your area, estimation by wear can vary depending on diet. For management purposes it really doesn't make any difference if the deer is 6 years old or 8 or more, they are all mature deer.

The cementum method is much more accurate on der over 3 years, but can vary a year or so but it is more expensive and results will take awhile to get back.

from the "Heartland of Wyoming"
 
I know a guy who killed a buck a couple of years ago that netted 206 typical. He told me he had two different biologists in two different states age the buck at 4. I had picked up sheds for two years previous to the year he killed it and he would have netted 192 the first set of sheds and 202 the second set.

Obviously both biologists were wrong as the buck was at least 6 or 7 when killed. If any of you have the Eastman's "Sage Bucks" video, the buck I'm talking about is the one at the very beginning out running in the sage and snow with some other bucks.
That MONSTEROUS back fork is 21 1/4"s long with a 14 1/2" deep fork.

I guess thats why they call it age "estimation".
 
Personally I think you should take a stool sample and measure the girth. One tird is much lighter to carry out in your front pocket than a lower jaw. Just have to be careful not to squish it, or your measurements won't be as accurate. I know this method has been proven on tracking bears, so why wouldn't it work for deer.
 
Here is another 4.5 year old buck taken from the same area you took yours berto. The age was determined with tooth cementum analysis as well.
Wyoming_deer_scouting_017.jpg[\img]
 
mtmiller,

i sure like the handlebars on your buck. glad to see you got your mount back and it looks GREAT! i would have popped him as well.

later,
berto
 

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