Claims I’ve looked at awbones on the same piece of property for 20+ years now. I took several with me to MSU to have aged right out of HS. The very first thing Dr Steve Demarias said to me was, “I’ll certainly put them into an age category but understand they could be years older or younger than what I tell you”.

I’ve found that to be 100% accurate. It’s very easy to place them into fawn, 1 year old and 2 year old age classes. After that, there are generalities to guide your decision, but there’s also many variables that can change one deers toothwear from the next deer. I’ve aged deer that I knew to be a minimum of 4 years old as 2 year olds according to toothwear before. I had enough years of pictures to rule that age out entirely. So sometimes deer that are 4-5, and perhaps older, age as 2-3 if all you have is a jawbone. That’s why I like to look at trailcam pics as additional info to really narrow down an age.