Answer: The 9 point buck looks to be exactly what you thought; a 2 1/2 year old buck. The 8 point whitetail is a yearling (1 1/2 year old buck). By the way, many people refer to fawns as yearlings. Fawns are fawns, yearlings are 1 1/2 year old does or bucks (they have their first set of antlers as yearlings).

With whitetail, some characteristics you can use to age deer on the hoof is to look at antler mass, the chest in relation to the belly, and the shape of the head. In almost all cases, antler mass increases with age. For example, look at the yearling 8 compared to the 2 1/2 year old 9. In addition, as a buck gets older, his belly gets larger and fuller. So does his chest.

With a larger chest and belly, this can cause the back of a mature whitetail to sway downward and make the legs appear shorter. Lastly, play close attention to a buck’s head. As a buck gets older, his head will appear shorter (from left to right) and deeper (up and down).

It’s a good idea to keep good photos of all age “known” age clases of bucks to improve your abilility to accurately age deer while whitetail hunting. That way, when you get photos of deer that you are unsure of, you can compare them to your file photos and judge the new whitetail buck based on the above criteria.

The overall age structure of a white-tailed deer population is younger than most people think. There are some states where the average harvested deer’s age is 1 1/2 years old. It has often been thought that antler and body size can indicate a deer’s age, but physical characteristics can often be quite misleading.

Before we start you must first understand that the number of antler points in no way corresponds to the age of a deer. Even if it did work that way, it would not help wildlife professionals in aging does. Antler size in bucks and physical development in both genders is greatly affected by diet and genetics, which may account for differences between animals of the same age taken from different locations.

The only true way to measure age in whitetail is by a deer’s teeth. The science of aging deer is based on tooth development and wear. Like humans, deer replace their baby teeth with permanent teeth at a relatively set rate. A buck will be in the process of losing its third premolar at 1 1/2 years of age. By the time a deer is 2 1/2 years old, all permanent teeth are in.

After a deer reaches 2 1/2 years old, age estimation is based largely on the rate of tooth wear. Diet and soil types may accelerate tooth wear, or not. However, estimating the age of adult deer follows a routine pattern until they are about 5 1/2 years of age. Once extreme tooth wear takes place, aging deer accurately based on tooth wear becomes less reliable. Of course, very few deer older than 5 1/2 are examined on an annual basis.