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Is he 4.5? (jawbone pics added)

Deer are somewhat like humans in that some localized lines can generally have certain traits just like a family line of humans.

Some have better teeth, that wear more slowly (and this can also be diet related as well as genetics).

Ever seen a family were most the men tend to be tall, while another family down the street, most the men tend to be short?

Or how about a family where most members are genetically obese, and even have a double-chinned "fat" neck at younger ages?
"TN Joe's" localized deer herd is possibly a family line of deer with short legs and fat necks (making 2 1/2's look more like 4 1/2's) ? ;)

There could also be a contributing factor of too many unnatural carbs in their diets (from corn feeding), displacing some of the protein they would otherwise consume at Mother Nature's smorgasbord. All that corn feeding could be contributing to body/belly fat, but taking away (displacing) some protein that might help grow larger antlers and a larger skeletal frame. Imagine if we for years mainly fed a child candy, which contributed to his consuming less protein. Would it stunt his skeletal growth while contributing to obesity?
 
TheLBLman":va7z9nt1 said:
You can always do both to get the best estimate you can on any particular deer's age --- just saying, no method is 100% correct, not even a lab.
Exactly what my closest friends and I do for the few bucks we are really interested in, which are bucks we think are 5.5+. I typically age them from TR&W and ALWAYS place a "+" at the end of my age, and then I send off to a lab for their opinion. Cementum annuli aging has it's place, but it also has it's limitations. Unless you are well versed on the entire process, you could easily be mislead into thinking that their aging determination is the gospel, when in fact, that is not always the case. Just remember, they are "selling" a service so they will always tell you they are 100% accurate.
 
TheLBLman":3eb5dhby said:
ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER":3eb5dhby said:
I personally gave up on depending on tooth wear for age.
IMO, it remains an excellent method for obtaining good trend data, and will typically be correct within 1 year for 2 1/2 to 5 1/2-yr-old bucks. It is less accurate above 5 1/2, and one that we might guess 6 1/2 could really be 8 1/2, whereas a lab should be more likely to peg that correct age of 8 1/2.

Unfortunately, imo, you're more likely to be "way off" using a lab because of human error, when one guy's "mailed in" jaw bone gets confused with another. A few years ago the King Ranch had a collection of bucks (of all ages) which they had been monitoring since fawns, and knew the exact ages of all. They submitted the jaw bones to a lab, and in this case, they received some gross lab errors, and wouldn't have known they were lab errors had it not been the unusual case of their having tracked every one of these bucks for years, from birth to death.

Also, the reason I asked if "TN Joe" was certain this jaw bone was from "his" buck:

I've many times seen people get back a jawbone from a taxidermist and/or a meat processor that was NOT their deer's jawbone. To insure you're aging "your" deer, you typically have to pull them yourself, or at least witness it, then see that it's immediately labeled and kept up with.

You can always do both to get the best estimate you can on any particular deer's age --- just saying, no method is 100% correct, not even a lab.
But if the above depicted jaw bone in question is sent off to a lab, I'll bet you a donut against a dollar it comes back as a 3 1/2 (or younger).
Oh I agree on the age with you on this deer
 

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