His body is big compared to other deer, but his skinny rack makes me doubt a 4.5 yr old age. Of course we're in Alabama so this could be as good a rack as he'll develop?
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Hard to tell from that pic, but he looks 4 to me. Full gut, legs appear short, neck appears to join the brisket low on the chest.

He's a minimum of four. Likely older. Don't age them by looking at any antler characteristic

Rule # 1. Ignore the rack when looking at age. That's not a super great pic for aging but if I had to guess, he might be 4.5 but I'd say he's most probably 5.5.

3.5

Thanks guys!

5

Id say 5-6, think his rack is thin cause he is regressing.

Odahnuff..chooteem

antler size dosen't regress at 5-6 years old because of age.

Nope. Sure don't.

I've seen declines between 7-9 and even then it's typically not mass that declines. They usually put on their best racks at 6-8 years.

For the record, I originally said 3.5 but given the angle of the picture it’s hard to tell. From the angle, it looks like his body is filling out over his legs but if you had a side pic he might be more narrow in the waist with proportionate legs. I don’t know because it’s hard to tell. I can see more of his neck which is indicative of 3.5. I’m keeping my 3.5 but will say possibly but not likely 4.5.

Good deer either way.

my old buck, TK, had his best rack at 12, 13 was ok. wth is that?

at 14 he had declined to little more than main beams with 2" points, 9 of em. Walks worse than I do.

3yo

Fred, are you talking about a deer you harvested or a captive deer? I could see where a captive deer with less stress and more nutrition could have racks like that at 12.