3 because he doesn't have pot belly like the one on the left.

I'd have to go 4.5

Because we are in the summer, I will say 4 for the deer on the right.

I would guess the buck on the left is 6 -  but you didn't ask.

Hunt Hard. Fish Smart. Explore Texas.

That deer isn't 2 is he?

If the date on the pic is correct I guess I should say 2.5. Your deer always fool me so I'm saying 2.5.

Aww, c'mon Hardy, don't brag about your yearling fawns to the rest of us!!   Makes me jealous, he probably just dropped his spots, right?! 

Seriously though,  I think 2.5; he's not quite as portly as he should be getting ramped up for the rut and he still has a pretty sharp snout.

I wish he was mine Andrew.  I love the spot dropping part.

No, just for the record, this deer was photographed in Jim Hogg County and this ranch is not high fenced. 

He is, however, under the same food plot system as ours are.  Matter of fact, the system was developed there.

I want to say 3 years old

I'd say 4.5 when the photo was taken.  5 now.

3.5

Keep yer eyes peeled!

I'D SAY 3.5-4.5 HE IS A VERY NICE DEER THOUGH. GIVE HIM 1-2 YRS MORE. HE DOES HAVE GREAT MASS AND A LOT OF POINTS, BUT NO POT BELLY AND HIS NOSE IS LONG, NO ROMAN NOSE THAT MOST OLDER BUCKS HAVE. TO BE HONEST, HE WOULD BE HARD TO TURN DOWN, MOST HUNTERS WOULD AGE HIM ON THE GROUND.BUT HE MAY MAKE IT----NOTE THE TIME ON THE PICTURE  3.20 AM.

3.5

Okay...now for some fun.

What if I told you that NO ONE is within 5 years of the correct answer to this buck??? 

Now I'll be the first to admit that given only the above photo, I would have said either 3.5 or 4.5 and that was the major point of this post...to show just how misleading ONE photo can be when determining the age of a certain buck.

I'll attach some other shots we got of him and they begin to show that he's not quite as young as he first appeared. 

Once we looked at all of them, we realized that he was an extremely old buck that we had been trying to take for years on the Tecomate Ranch.  He is at least 9 1/2 and quite possibly 10 1/2 years old (it's hard to tell with the teeth when they reach that age). 

One of the things that we have noticed on some (and I emphasize some) old bucks is that they have a rebound year, both physically and with their antler size. 

After two years of being a 160-170 class buck and being incredibly run down, this old boy showed up trim and sleek and sporting a rack that grossed just over 200", the same size as we estimated he was at 6 1/2.  It may be that they "take a year off" or something like that due to a lack of rut activity, fighting, basically of all of that stress and they make a comeback.

Anyway, just thought it was an interesting occurance that most of us don't get to see due to a lack of truly mature bucks out there.  Few ranches allow bucks to reach this age and even fewer bucks actually achieve it without dying from other causes.

couple of other things about this individual deer (and it's key to remember that they all are individuals and have their own characteristics), is that he doesn't have and has never shown the tell-tale Roman nose the way that some other bucks do.  He has a short face and you can see on the other shots that "block" triangle that his head has shaped into which definitely shows age.

He also is a small bodied deer.   Just like people, deer can vary quite a bit in body size and shape.  This buck never had a large frame or probably weighed much over 180-190 lbs. whereas the average mature buck at Tecomate on a good year might weigh over 220 lbs.

I REALLY MISSED THE AGE ON HIM BADLY. SENSE HE HAS GROWN THAT OLD AND YOU HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO TAKE HIM, I'D SAY HE KNOWS A LOT AT HOW TO SURVIVE THE HUNTING SEASON. NOTE THE TIME FRAME ON THE PHOTOS, IF HE ONLY COMES OUT AT THAT TIME, HE WON'T GET TAKEN ANY TIME SOON. GREAT DEER.

Ok, so I was waayyy off!! 2.5 years..puh!!

I wonder how long he was milling about that feeder and if he beds nearby?  Based on the pics, he was at that station for about 2 hours.  Surely he didn't move too far by the time shooting light came around, right?

What are y'all's thoughts?  Hardy, how well did they have him pin-pointed?

Only 123 days until the Texas Deer Rifle Opener!!!

Nice 3 yr old Buck !  hehe

Andrew,

He was taken near that feeder (within 1/4 mile). 

Pretty interesting in how this old buck's range had narrowed over the years. 

We only saw him during the helicopter survey at 5, and he was near this area.

At 6, he was seen only once by hunters, twice by ranch hands and in the helicopter survey (and we hunt all around his range).  He was all over what we call our north pasture.

At 7 and 8 we saw him quite frequently.  At 7, there was a group of stands that you would see him in and then at 8, that group got smaller and in a tighter area.

By the year of the photo, he was seen in a pretty small area compared to what we think was his original range.

Thanks for the info; that's encouraging. 

Hopefully my Brown County Ghost is still milling around on our place then.  All I have is a set of sheds from last year and a couple of scouting pics from years past.  Maybe this will be THE year.

Hardy,

I'm new to these forums, and enjoy looking at threads like this one. I've always made guesses on these threads, but I wasent able to post my guess, until now :) We had a deer on the ranch last year, that was just like this buck. Looked like a 4 1/2 year old, actually a 9 1/2 year old and put out his best set of antlers at 193". He grew 21" from last years sheds, mostly thanks to the wet year I guess.