When you guys kill a buck do you age it by taking out the jawbone and giving the molars a good once-over, even if that's not the most 100% best way to age deer?

Or do you look at a little gray in the face and maybe a torn ear or broken tine tip and pronounce it "mature" without aging otherwise?

I see this sometimes, and especially with does. "That's an old, mature doe. See how her ear flops over?"

What's your mechanism for aging a buck or doe to keep accurate records for your property or club?

Jawbone

Combination of history/body characteristics and jawbone. Most of the ones we kill we have several years of pics of.

Body size for bucks. I don't kill does, and don't pay attention to their age.

I'm no expert at all, but neck size, belly sway, muzzle color.

We haven't pulled jawbones in years, but we used to send them off to the biologist (back when we had doe tags). We provide live weight and record the sex (with number of points if buck) and IF the doe is lactating.

Bucks, more often than not - based on size (not a good indicator (the bucks in Montgomery County generally weigh a little more) - 175-ish 3-1/2, 190-ish 4-1/5, 200+- 5-1/2+). I've never used gray as an indicator. When I hunted Montgomery County - we had pictures of most of the deer we would kill, so we had some photographic reference before pulling the trigger. During the rut - all bets are off on the weight. I killed a very large 8-point several years ago that was pretty light (182) for his frame, the taxidermist jawbone aged him at 5-1/2+ - I have the jawbone somewhere around the house that if I can find it, I'll post the picture.

Does - I normally open their mouths and run my finger across their teeth and check the sharpness, wear, and enamel. This is also not a good indicator based on soil type, but in Montgomery and Bullock county - the soil is not sandy, so I don't expect excessive wear from what they eat.

I personally have never used ears as an indicator

I age bucks based on body size and shapes, like many others have said I normally have pictures that help with accurately aging bucks. I don't age does, never have really. A lot of times I decide to shoot a doe based on if she starts blowing for no reason at all.

Usually check their wallet for an ID.

I've never killed a buck I wanted to know the age, but my old club did jaw bones for does too so I just went off that.

I just don't think pulling the jawbone is necessary we all know what a mature deer looks like.

I might be a 14 inch spike on one side or a nice symetrical 10pt. Is it 4 yo or 5 yo? Who cares. You should be astonished it made it past 3 without taking a bullet.

It ain't a 4 inch 4 point.

Reality says - Not a lot of guesswork involved.

Pretty much my thinking I can 1 2 and 3+ just cant distinguish differnce over 3 so once they hit 3 they mature to me 😃

I’ve never pulled a jawbone on a mature buck I’ve killed. Scared I’d mess the cape up for the mount. I’ve never killed a mature “cull” that wasn’t going on my wall.

Same. It's really not scientific to me, I guess I just know it when I see it. And the way I hunt I don't normally have the leisure of viewing that deer for any length of time, I hunt a military base mostly and it's all big woods and cutovers. Lots of times the deer might've been jumped. It's usually just "Oh crap, there's a good un, BANG!" Sometimes you get down and walk over to him and there's a little ground shrinkage, maybe he's a 3.5 year old 15" wide 8pt. Next time he's 130" and the biologist says 6+. Those two deer would be fairly distinguishly different on a food plot together, relaxed with plenty of binocular time. But most of us can't / won't tell them apart slipping through a chest high cutover at 100 yards, going in the direction of that other guy's headlamp you saw this morning. Hurry up, BANG!!! But for me there's just no scenario where I'm gonna shoot a piss willy, those deer are always obvious.

We have pics of all our bucks every year and keep up with what bucks make it through each year. We are yet to kill one we dont know.

That's why you get a Taxidermist to pull it after he's caped it 😀

It’s very simple to pop a jaw bone out on a deer getting caped. Slide the bar down the outside of the both knocking tissue away. Reach back in with loppers and cut bone. Slide bar in back of mouth over the cut bone and it slide right out. Rocky Willamson thought me that way in Dallas county back in the early 90’s. We did it for clients all the time cause we figured once they left we’d never see the jawbone again

I know a mature buck as soon as I see it. No need to pull jaw bones.

I don’t have to check their ID after or during the fact. We have a bouncer at the gate that only lets 5.5+ deer into the club. We just know what works for us.

Usually by the number of brown paper bags I get from the processor.
3/4 bag=1 yr old
1 - 1 1/4 bag(s)= 2yr old
2 bags=3 yr old
2 + bags= mature(and I was a guest on somebody else’s place)

Oregon has a voluntary program where you send them an incisor and they age it and send you back a postcard with the age. I like to keep the cards with the euro mounts I do. They slice that tooth and count the rings. It is a more accurate method than tooth wear, and doesn't risk tearing the hide. The lab procedure is time consuming and expensive, but we pay a lot more for licenses (and tags).

Yup. That's why those removal tools have the one side of the "L" that narrows down toward the end....so it'll fit right down between the cheek and gums.