Antler Growth

Where I have been hunting I have been noticing buck's that have nice body size but really small racks. Can anyone tell me why this is happing.
Thanks
Big bass

This is usually one of two things but it can be for several different reasons. The first and most common is young immature bucks doing most of the breeding. This is usually in a place with a large population of deer and this also leads to some inbreeding in the herd which is a bad thing also. Most all bucks are the products of their fathers and the bloodline thereof. The lack of nutrients of available food sources can also be a huge factor. Tell me a little more about your setup and address what I mentioned above and maybe we can pin a theory down.

One other thing I failed to mention is you may just have alot of young bucks with good body weights on them do to alot of agricultural crops ect. I preach to everybody if you have a situation that would allow it is to let bucks walk until they are mature. If your hunting group on your land shoots little bucks every year this will really hurt your chances of seeing shooter bucks.

This is caused by lack of nutrients. They are not getting the minerials they need. Kill more does and see bigger bucks.

they probably just need more age. Sounds like healthy young deer to me.

We have hade some of the deer aged by game wardens and some of them have been up to 5 1/2 years old with a 12inch inside spread!

I do know a friend who has the same problem. Although to him it is not a problem, but he shot a ten pointer one year and an eight the other year. I have a four pointer that would swallow up his eight point rack. A six and a seven that would swallow up the ten pointer. His deer appeared mature in body weight. All with long noses and all the big teeth and everything, yet the rack was small. They even had a thick skull plate like an old buck??? I would guess genetics cause these were agriculture fed deer shot right out of a bean field next to an acorn infested woodlot, go figure. They also harvest a good amount of does from the land also. So I don't know. It would take a good biologist to really pinpoint the cause. If it is purely genetics, the problem may never be able to be solved. My friend learned that he would never see the kind of trophy buck we all dream of where he hunted so he and his family harvested the small rack bucks within limits and who could say he was wrong. I mean if that is all you see, then you'd be an old man before you shot a buck.

Want me to come down and help you out with this problem? wink wink

If your seeing all these small bucks in the fields try hunting in a wooded area. Usually your big bucks dont like to come out in the fields as much, at least thats what i found to be true.

When i first started hunting all i seen was small bucks in a field next to a pond, every now and then id see a nice buck on the outskirts of the field where they were crossing from woodlot to woodlot. So i moved back in the woods so i could watch the field and still see deep in the wood.

The past few years i took a nice 8 pointer where you couldnt even wrap your hand around the main beam. Then a nice 10 pointer
with at least 6 18" tines. All in Jeff. county where big deer arent all that common.

So i guess im trying to say is if its overpopulation put a big dent in the herd as much as you can and try hunting in the nasty stuff where you dont want to go.

Did you say 6 tines at 18 inches, you better have that baby scored you might have you a Boone and Crockett? WOW

That's 108 inches of just TINE LENGHTH there are world record deer in the books that can't boast that.

i wish it was 6 though lol

can you post pics on this board?