My bow hunters reliably (to my estimation) know the age of desirable bucks on our farm. They do this by having game camera pictures of the same buck year after year.
Maybe some dedicated trophy hunters here can confirm this practice or profess that its a bunch of hooey.
Certainly possible to know the age of deer that you have history with! The bucks I posted above are "yard deer" that I have extensive history with. I plant food plots and fruit trees around my house, run trailcams, and hunt. The wide 7 is on his 3rd year of me being able to recognize him for certain. I probably didn't have him specifically identified as a 2.5yr old or maybe even a 3.5yr old. So I likely can age him around 5 or 6. Antlers aren't the only identifiers though. In fact they may be very misleading. I like to look for color patterns such as the white throat patch, ripped or notched ears, scars, deformed hooves, etc.
With all that said, if I didn't have history with the wide 7 and he suddenly appeared chasing a doe in during the rut and I had to guess his age, I'd probably say between 4.5 and 6.5, but he could easily be 7+ and I wouldn't know different.
