Frequently Asked Questions

Great question. Most hunters are just curious about the age of their whitetail deer. However, if you are a deer manager or a hunting guide/outfitter, you need to know the age of your deer to effectively manage your deer population.

2. Why is age important?

Determining a deer's age is one of the three most important aspects that one needs to know. Age, Nutrition, and Genetics are the main three.

3. Why should I record information from a deer harvested on my land?

Only through maintaining age, weight and antler development measurements can you evaluate the worth of any management program, by comparing same aged deer from then to now. To truly evaluate the worth of the program you must compare data from same aged deer.

4. What should I look for when I look at a deer's teeth?

At 1 year and 6 months old, deer start loosing their first three bottom, side teeth or pre-molars. During the following month, three new permanent teeth will appear and replace these three baby teeth. The key to aging deer at this age is to look at the third tooth on the bottom. If this tooth has three cusps its a baby tooth and its age is 1 year and 6 months old. If the third tooth has two cusps its 1 year and 7 months old. For the rest of its life the third tooth will have two cusps.

5. What method is used when determining the age of a deer?

When determining the age of a deer, the tooth replacement/wear method is used. Calcium deposits in a deer's mouth are the true indicator of age.

6. My buddies have always told me that age was determined by the gray on the deer's face, is this true?

We always want to believe our fellow hunters but this statement is simply not true. Again, a deer's age is determined by it's teeth, not the gray on its face or the weight of the deer.

7. That's a huge rack! He must be an old deer? - We have all heard this one right? Antler size does not indicate the age of a deer. Remember, look at the deer's teeth.

8. What is the average age of whitetail deer?

The average age of whitetail is 1-1/2 years old. Most whitetails that are harvested will generally fall into this category.

9. Why should I purchase a deer aging tool?

Do you hunt? Do you allow others to hunt on your land?

If you do, then you should have a deer aging tool. You want to keep track of the bucks that are harvested on your land so you know how old they are getting before they are harvested. This allows you to effectively manage your deer. It also tells you if you harvested that buck to early in it's life. If you would have allowed that buck to live another year and continue to pass on it's genes, what would your buck population look like in the future? What does the rack look like? Was this an older deer with a messed up rack that needed to be harvested or was this buck only 2 1/2 years old - in it's prime, with great antler potential and it was harvested to soon. Basically, the deer aging tool is an inexpensive, easy to use tool that allows you to stop guessing the age of your deer.