Age these deer please

Hey guys,
It has been a long time since I visited this forum so I apologize for low participation this year. I have been an avid deer hunter for a long time but my wife and I were blessed enough to have our first child two years ago and needless to say I have spent less and less time in the woods. I typically spend most of my effort hunting SE MN where a friend’s family allows me to hunt on their farm. Time constraints forced me to pass on bow hunting MN (which is out of state for me) and to buy a WI bow tag (in state) where my buddy just purchased a new farm and invited me to hunt with him. This was nice since I didn’t feel the pressure that I needed to be out there a ton to justify the cost of an out of state tag. Anyway, I was fortunate enough to arrow my personal best bow buck on my second sit on Oct 24th, he was chasing a hot doe and I couldn’t get a when he came by at 5 yards but managed to get an arrow off at 30 yards, it was a steep angled shot down hill, i hit him right where i wanted to but it was only a single lung hit. I had to put another arrow in him but we got him after a significant track job. How old do you think this deer is? He had a huge body and big block head, his head gear isn’t anything massive but I was very happy with him. I’m thinking 4.5 or older just based on the body/face.

I shot my second buck of the season at 7am on the morning after the opener. He came in quick crossing a point about 80 yards, i could tell he was tall and had long beams, i made a quick decision and shot. The shot took out both lungs but he still went 100 yards. When i came up to him i was a little disappointed, not so much with the antlers but body size and perceived age of the deer. He had a much smaller body than my bow buck and I’m afraid he is a 2.5 year old with awesome genes, maybe a 3.5. He had a perfectly symetrical rack with split G2’s, but he broke his G2 off on one side. With the broken tine he scored 130, without the broken tine he would have been about 134.

Anyway, how old do you think these two bucks are based on the pictures?

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Here is the MN buck

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Joe,
Great bucks. From my opinion….

You are pretty close with your age estimates. I would put my money on that the bow buck is 4.5 and the rifle buck is 3.5.

The rifle buck….That would be an awful lot of bone to grow on a 2.5 year old buck. Because think that his first fall he was a button buck. Next fall at 1.5 he most likely was a small basket or big forked buck. That would be a huge jump. Also from when I hunted SE MN, I never saw all the distinctive bumps and stickers on the brows and bases until they reached 3.5 years of age in my area. On that buck looks like they are pretty well established. He definitely has great genetics.

Body size is definitely a difference. But 3 weeks between kills, a buck could burn alot of fat off in that amount of time. Take a measurement from the corner of the front of the eye to the tip of the nose. Sometime I use that as a another measurement to help me guess the age. Quite a bit of change from 2 to 3 to 4 in that measurement.

Congrats on a great year, maybe you will just hunt your home state from now on, and avoid the out of state fees. Great deer.

SKTR

SKTR,
Your point about the time laps and how much rut activity happens between those dates is a good observation, he could have run a lot of that body fat off of him by the time i shot him. I also agree on the bone growth, would be a TON for a 2.5 year old but i’m not expert at that. Thanks for commenting and i hope your season was successful as well.

I would agree on 4.5 and 3.5 or possibly one year older for each, but not any younger.

Pretty dang tough to estimate age on a buck without a standing broadside pic which I understand is impossible when they have been harvested. There are things you can look at to help, but it’s a crap shoot. If you could show a top view of the lower jaw bone including the front molar to the back molar that would be more accurate of a guess. In any case both bucks are mature and both great bucks. I wouldn’t hesitate to say both are 4.5 years old plus. Although the gun buck looks lighter weight wise I still think he has characteristics of an older buck. The roman nose on the bow buck definitely shows his age. Congrats on 2 great bucks.

You never know though. You are correct that would be rare for a 2 year old. A few years ago my dad shot a 2 year old 10’point that scored 141. He was mad when he found out how young it was because it clearly had awesome genes.