Best guess?

Round little baby butt, long spindly legs, no brisket mass,
no coloration or pee on his hocks. He is a young kid. 2.5
If he is still a 6 next year at 3.5 probably not ever going to be much.

Here he is last year. He always has that funky left brow tine.

If that was him last year I would doubt if he was 1.5 then.
So perhaps he is 3.5? Unless he was a late born fawn? He just doesn't seem to exhibit lots of 3.5 characteristics yet in the pics. No way at 4.5 yet. What your guess? You're pretty good at it.
If he's actually 3.5 and you are on MLD's and need some numbers reached I'd personally put him on the ground.
But that's just me.

old enough to cull!

You gotta be politically correct. It's racist to call him a cull nowadays in modern WFS classes. He is a " management deer" don't you know

3.5+ all day if that was a pic from last year. That's a cull buck anywhere, shoot him.

This was kind of a trick question. As far as I know, Ive only ever had one buck on the property with this type of rack. Nothing else around looks anything like him. And he has three years of that same squirrelly brow tine.

He is the fortunate benefactor of a one buck county. A buddy could have shot him last year but said he looked young and Im sure he didnt want me fussing over young deer getting shot.

Here's pics from '23.

And to cut to the chase, here's pics of what I can only assume is him in '22. Ive probably gotten 1000 pics of him and would be very surprised if it's not the same deer. If so, that makes him a minimum of 5 in this year's pics. Possibly 6.



After running a pile of trail cams, on the same property, for a number of years, and looking at hundreds of thousands of pics, Ive come to the conclusion that there are some deer that never fully fill out like what we expect a 5 or 6yo deer to look like. Ive also learned that just like humans, deer have different body shapes and types. Some will follow the deer aging chart perfectly, but some never fit in.

CS - totally agree with you on that. You also have to take the timing of the photo into consideration - and I think IR photos are harder than regular light.

From managing our ranch and a few others, I have had the opportunity to age a lot of deer on the hoof ….but also been able to see many of those deer that were aged on the hoof killed and then aged by jaw molars and been able to compare the two findings.
Some will argue that aging by jaw teeth is not accurate as well…but it is assuming a plus/minus 2 years margin of error at a max….and is still considered the best standard in the field by every biologist out there. It is still proven to be the more accurate method than not.
The thing to do on this 5.5 year old deer that looks like he is 3.5 on the hoof, is to shoot him and post his molar pictures. I for one would really be interested in seeing those.
I have certainly found that I have, over the years, really missed on aging some deer on the hoof…..and agree with your thoughts. However, using basic guidelines, that have been proven to be much more right than wrong…again on the average as you say..not all follow the rules.
Especially if you get to then look at the harvested deer molars and can compare on the hoof aging vs. teeth aging on the same deer….it sure teaches you a lot.
This particular deer should have been harvested out of the herd when it was determined he was 3.5 and was not improving. …what you waiting on? I'm being sarcastic of course.

You sure he has not spawned a son/sons with the same characteristics and you're seeing them?
That happened on our ranch with a goofy 8 point. I assumed I was seeing the same deer each year. Fact was when we dumped him the deer was only 3.5. We never knew what happened to his dad.

It's possible but I dont think the brow tines would be that consistent. I'm sure Ill have more pics in the coming weeks as he becomes more regular and hopefully Ill have someone get a shot on him. Also, go back and just look at the head in the daytime pic in the first post. Doesnt really seem to match the body.

Yes sir. One thing is he doesn't show any battle scars and you would have to think that a squirt like him would have been beat to hell by the big boys if he is 5.5-6.5. . Unless he is a total whimp non aggressive guy and runs from every fight all his life!