You ask yourself why should I age this deer when it is walking into my shooting lane. The reason we should all think about is QDM which means Quality Deer Management. By letting some deer go and taking some deer out of the herd you are only creating a better, healthier herd down the road. To do this we need to try and judge the age of live deer which can be a hard thing to do but its not totally out of the question. It will take time and a lot of practice and mostly patients.

Everything I have read about tells me a buck will not grow it’s best rack until it’s body has grown to full maturity which makes sense to me. I will try to give you certain charactistics to look for in different age deer.

Some say that you can judge the age of a buck by the size of it’s rack and how many points it has. For me I think this is incorrect. For example I have seen a few 8 pointers at check stations figuring that it was a mature deer when the taxidermist was telling me that it was only a 1-1/2 old. You can not go by the antlers because they grow differently, especially if they are eating very nutrious food.

The Fawn or Yearling as some call it will have nubs on their heads in between the ears which can be seen if you get close enough. Their ears will look long and their nose will be short. A buck fawn’s body size will be smaller than an adult doe but, bigger than a doe fawn. There legs will be long and skinny and they have a gait like a frisky calf will have. Last thing you might want to look for is another deer because fawns/yearlings will usually travel with other deer and hardly alone.

The 1 to 1-1/2 year old buck will look like a doe with small antlers. They will have a long thin neck and no defined brisket to think of. They will also have white tarsel glands  and there lower belly line will curve upwards nears the hind quarters. They will try to make advances toward does but in the presence of other bucks they will appear shy and timid.

The 2-1/2 year old buck will start to look a little husky but not much. The neck will also start to gain some mass slightly. The legs will still look long as well as the face but will appear to be more defined than say a yearling or doe. The brisket will start to show some widening and the tarsel glands could have a slight brownish look to them.

The 3-1/2 year old will start to look very muscular. They will start to make bigger rubs at this point with scrapes as well. The neck continues to get larger and the head itself will look shorter. Their brisket will look more noticable and their legs will look like they fit their body size. The tarsels glands will look very brown especially during the rut and the hind quarters will be filled out.

The 4-1/2 year old buck if fed well will look like a work horse with a defined dip in it’s back and the belly will not hang below the chest line. Everything at this point makes it look like the buck that younger bucks will not tangle with. At this point their necks will start to look shorter and as they get older and if still feeding well the necks will almost disappear at a glance.

Based on what I have read it makes sense to let the younger bucks with big racks go by because those deer  have the potential of becoming even bigger in the future plus it would also extend their genes to new births which means good management for years to come.

This is something I tried for the first time last season when I passed up what I think was a 2-1/2 year old 8 point. I am positive I saw him a month ago and he is now a 3 year old with a more defined brisket, bigger belly and hind quarters and what appeared to be a 10 point rack with an extra sticker on one side.

It will be tough to pass him up this year but we’ll see.

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