How to Age a Whitetail Deer

Food Plots-How to Age a Whitetail                  

  I am in my mid forties and I have been hunting deer since I was of legal age in Pennsylvania. Through most of those years hunters, that I know or chatted with,  really didn’t concern themselves to much with the age of a whitetail, just as long as it was legal, no one really cared. Once in a great while someone would harvest an extremely old deer and then the guessing game would begin on trying to figure out how old it really was.

Nowadays, it seem like every time that I watch a hunting show or have a cold one at the local watering hole, everyone is an expert on deer aging. And for a few reasons, they are really concerned with the age of the deer that they are seeing and or bagging. Part of it, is the growing popularity of deer food plots, which gives hunters more time to observe deer and try to make age judgments. However, I believe that most of this comes from people watching professionals hunt deer management ranches, where the owners of such ranches tell you what you are allowed kill. So, to fill dead time, the host or hunter talks about the age of the whitetail that he sees or is stalking. They are also obsessed with taling about antler scoring, which I find very annoying, but that is for another article. Personally I think that a lot of this aging stuff is a load a crap and just gives limited TV personalities something else that they act like they wrote book on but who am I to say. If hunters want to know something, it is my job to provide the information, so be my guest. 

To my knowledge there are several different ways to tell the age of a Whitetail deer. I had a PA game officier check the the age of the very first Buck that I ever killed, when I was 12. We ran into him as my father, uncle and myself were bringing the deer out of the woods. To do this, he slit the skin back from the deers mouth crack along the jawline and exposed the back  jaw and teeth and informed me that it was 1 1/2 years old. I still think that this is the best way to tell the age of a deer but you are limited to knowing this fact after you all ready have the deer down. Today, everyone wants to be able to judge age by site and I have to tell you that the research that I did seems easy but it can be tricky. So, I assembled some of the latest information on the subject for you to view. I found articles on identifying by appearance and jaw and tooth methods. Enjoy!

Aging Whitetail DeerAt Various Stages (David Selman, Tracker …

Aging a Yearling DeerYearling deer can be easily aged by examining the third tooth back on either side of the jaw. This tooth is called the third premolar. If this tooth has three cusps, the deer is 1 1/2 years old. …

Publish Date: 02/19/2010 9:48

http://blog.vici.ro/2010/02/19/aging-whitetail-deer-at-various-stages-david-selman-tracker-outdoors-com/

Aging Whitetail Deer by Their Teeth

Looking at the teeth of a deer can give you an idea of a deer’s age. It’s not a perfect science, but when it comes to wildlife management what really is? Wildlife, including white-tailed deer, do not lend themselves to close monitoring. …

Publish Date: 01/21/2010 11:10

http://www.wildlifemanagementpro.com/2010/01/21/aging-whitetail-deer-by-their-teeth/

Whitetail Woods: Aging A Whitetail Deer by it’s Jawbone

“Aging Whitetail Deer” This video’s purpose is to teach someone how to age a Whitetail Deer. This is not a hunting video. Posted by Rick Kratzke at 6:00 AM. Labels: aging teeth, deer and deer hunting, youtube video …

Publish Date: 07/27/2009 6:00

http://whitetailwoods.blogspot.com/2009/07/aging-whitetail-deer-by-its-jawbone.html

Back To: Cultivating Your Food Plot Options For Whitetails

Cultivating Your Food Plot Options For Whitetails

  I am sure that many of you know this all ready but one of the best things that you can do for your deer food plot is cultivate the resources that you have available to you on your existing land. What I mean by this is instead of clearing everything off and buying some wonder seed to plant all over, look around to see what you might be able to accentuate on the property, as is it naturally exits. I stumbled upon this video below while I was searching for material on corn food crops. More than anything that caught my attention from his video was that the kill zones were very well thought out in advance and yes, he planted new crops but he also worked with what he all ready had on the lots to attract deer. Please go ahead and check it out and I will also have some content discussed afterwards.

One thing that I would like to mention, first of all about this video is that it is terrific that this guy has all of these tools available to him to do what he is doing. In this short clip he mentions 2 tractors and a skid steer and 3 different food plots. This is great if you have all of these resources at your command but unfortunately most of us do not. This doesn’t mean that there was nothing to learn from the clip however. First, he incorporated the use of the fruit trees that are currently producing into his kill zone, This very smart because you never know what the whitetail deer might be craving. He also knew generally, which way the deer naturally funnel into the the food plot. This sounds easy but it is an important question to consider. Most experienced deer hunters know that deer can come into an area from all angles but they also know that deer can become quit predictable also.

I also love the fact that he created his own natural watering hole. He didn’t have one so by putting one in, he added an attraction to an all ready attractive food plot. If you do something like this, make sure that you do it well before the season starts. Unless deer are thirsting to death they generally need to feel very safe about where they get their water, so make sure they have unimpeded access to it. He is correct about the natural minerals that may be contained within his water hole but one thing that he didn’t mention was that if the hole doesn’t draw off of some type of water source, it might be fueled by the fields run off water which may contain fertilizer and lime, which you don’t want.

However you decide to do your food plot just make sure that you look around and reap the benefits of what you all ready have. You know your property better than anyone so you should be able to make the right decisions. To me, the whole idea is not to do work that you do not need to. Also remember that the more natural looking you food plot is the more comfortable whitetails will be in visiting it.