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1 1/2, 21/2, 3 1/2?

4K views 24 replies 19 participants last post by  12pointfeva 
#1 ·
The small eight and the seven are from Erie county, the fresh eight is from Somerset county. In round numbers they measure 12, 14 and 16 inches spread. A neighbor doubted the middle deer was 2 1/2, thinking it was a 1 1/2, but I think it fits the general size range for a 2 1/2 nicely. Maybe the wrong forum but I was curious what folks thought. The seven was a farmland swamp buck but I still think it was a 2 1/2.
 
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#3 ·
Well then speculate John.

To the OP..

I'd say you're likely not far off in your guesses. the smaller of the two IMO, if from the same general area could be the same age. Genetically they are fairly similar.


The big 8, again, tough to say, but i'd at least 2.5 would be an EASY guess.. but it very well could be 3.5+
 
#5 ·
I could guess the ages but it'd be guesses. I think 2 of 2 and the new one is 3.


This is how I categorize:


spiker !
dink
scrubber
decent
nice
big
huge
tremendous

Don't have any specific definitions, I guess dink and scrubber could be the same. Guess it's just what I feel like calling them at the time. That way, I'm always sure.
I think you got two decents and a nice there.
 
#7 ·
HammerDown15 said:
John S said:
You cannot tell the age of a deer from the antlers! The jawbone tells the tale. Without having the lower jawbone aged, it is just speculation.
Agreed.

Post pics of the lower jaw
I just thought it was an interesting pic with the nested antlers, I do not have the jaw bones. The post probably should have a different title or be in a different forum. It was ment as a fun discussion which is not what this forum is for. I will add that the deer with smallest rack by all appearances was a young deer. No gray, sleek frame, it was shot long enough ago that I do not have digital pic of it. The 7 point measured 14+ which is the magic number for the local state forest antler restrictions (Coopers rock, WV) desisgned to let bucks get older. I know that the 14" rule is used other places as well and was discussed for PA. However my neighbor when I lived in Erie county thought nothing of the 7 other than a big 1.5 yr old. But I thought it looked like an older deer.
Not that anyone can the exact age but here is the 7


and the eight


Anyway I thought it interesting how the antlers nested and I thought people might in fact want to speculate.
 
#11 ·
I am just speculating but they all look like 2.5 year olds to me, the 8 has a little bit more mass than the others and would be the one I would say is borderline, But again this is all guessing, and as stated earlier the jaw bone is the real ticket.
 
#15 ·
Theres no way to tell for sure without cementum aging the teeth. Many fail to realize that some bucks don't have the feed/genetics to grow a 150" set of antlers no matter how old they are. That top 8 is probably the oldest and could be anywhere from 2 to 10.
 
#18 ·
oaktowntom said:
all the jawbone is gonna tell you for sure is 1.5 -2.5 anything above that is a guess. I read somewhere that's not a given
Oaktown is spot on. I read a study published in the last year or two that asked a number of wildlife biologists to age jawbones from known aged deer and deer which were aged with dental cementum thin sectioning. The numbers were pretty much all over the place. The take home from the paper was jawbones are probably only useful to categorize a deer's age as mature or not mature.

I just read another paper this past weekend that asked 107 professional biologists of all levels of experience to age a number of bucks on the hoof using known aged bucks. Their guesses were all over the place as well. In fact, only 62% of the participants were able to correctly assign known 1 1/2 year old bucks. Correct assignments for other ages were even lower.

The take home message from both studies was that aging on the hoof and aging with the jawbone are wrong more than they are right. It makes nice small talk though.
 
#22 ·
erie county deer are about like ours here. the first one could easily be a 1.5 buck, probably is. i'd say you got the ages right on the other 2 also.

in this area, theres lots of 1.5 bucks 12 or 13 inches wide, 8 points, tines about 5 inches long. just like the first one in the op.
 
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