Age this one

[cotty16]

Alrighty fellers... I never age bucks because I dint really have a clue, but this guy has me intrigued. I found his left side last February and he's actually regressed a bit. His Brow tine last year was about 6 inches and curved slightly inward. This year it is smaller His G2 is about the same. His G3 is slightly smaller this year. The main beam looks to be about the same. Is this deer on it's way down or up?
Take a look at his body as well. Let me know your thoughts.

 

[uglykat26]

2/12 maybe 3 1/2

 

[hickslawns]

My thoughts: Possibly a different deer? Maybe a cousin or brother one year younger?

Other thought if you are positive it is the same deer. Maybe his nutrition this year was not as good as last year? Maybe it is not an age thing.

If this is indeed an old deer, then he is a classic example that not ALL deer are going to be 140+" deer no matter how old they get.

 

[finelyshedded]

Just my ope Cotty, but this is a typical cull deer. I'm not even sure 100% that it's the same deer you found the shed TOO but regardless of that, he's prolly a 2.5 year old and is showing very little poe in the tine length, mass and beam departments. If he were TOO make it TOO 5.5 years of age, he prolly wouldn't make 130. He just doesn't have it. IMO:smiley_bril:

 

[Kaiser878]

I dont think that shed is from that deer. At the most I would put him at 2.5. Will he ever amount to much? Its hard to say, but I dont think you can make the decision to cull that deer at 2.5. Now next year if he is much of he same, then I would agree with finelyshedded. HE could just be a 2.5 y/o that was a spike last year. I dont know if there is any merrit behind this or not, but I think spikes are buck fawns that were born late in the year the previous year. They tend to be a year behind in growth compared to other deer. IMO making them harder to age due to their antler growth based on age!

 

[Thunderflight]

2.5 year old deer and the horn is from a different buck.

 

[finelyshedded]

I still think he doesn't have it but Zach is right though about waiting TOO see how he shapes up next year before classifing him as a cull deer. BUT, I still see him scoring around 100 inches or less! IMO Tine length is paramount and is what I'm hanging my hat on with this guy.

 

[jagermeister]

I dont think that shed is from that deer. At the most I would put him at 2.5. Will he ever amount to much? Its hard to say, but I dont think you can make the decision to cull that deer at 2.5. Now next year if he is much of he same, then I would agree with finelyshedded. HE could just be a 2.5 y/o that was a spike last year. I dont know if there is any merrit behind this or not, but I think spikes are buck fawns that were born late in the year the previous year. They tend to be a year behind in growth compared to other deer. IMO making them harder to age due to their antler growth based on age!

Yep...

2.5 year old deer and the horn is from a different buck.

and yep.