This Pennsylvania buck is referred to as “Heavyweight” by the submitter, but should this whitetail be on the hit list? The information below will help you evaluate the age of this deer:
- Area: Orbisonia, Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania
- Details: We have approximately 500 acres that has been managed for the past 5 years. There are multiple food plots and we also do some feeding in the winter. Deer numbers are fairly high as we are commonly getting photos of a dozen does at the larger fields. There are probably at least 3 or 4 does to 1 buck.
- The rut: Chase phase is the last few days of October and the rut continues into the first week or two of November.
Evaluating the Age of this Pennsylvania Buck
So we’ve got two different photos of this buck to look at and neither has the buck in the ideal position for estimating age on the hoof. We can tell, however, that this buck is neither very young nor very old.
The buck appears to be 3-4 years of age. The photo is taken well before the rut, so I would expect the deer to “muscle up” some more prior to the rut. This will make the deer look heavier and will add some age to his appearance.
My gut is telling me this Pennsylvania buck is 4 1/2 years old, but I may be overestimating the age of this deer by a year. To best evaluate the age of deer on a property, maintain photo records (game camera photos) and then age deer using tooth wear and replacement after harvest.
Aging deer using tooth wear is not a perfect science, but it will allow the hunter/manager to correlate the physical characteristics of local bucks with their estimated age based on tooth wear. Developing a catalog of bucks over the years will allow for improved age estimation.