Antler Growth

[Randy G Roberts]

I was checking the trail cameras on my property with the hopes of finding some nice deer to pursue in the upcoming archery season. First I came across the pic on the left which was taken on 07/17 and then later on the same disc I had him again on 08/01, the pic on the right. Take a close look at his 3rd and 4th points as well as the beam length noting how much he has grown in a 2 week period. They tell me the black bulbs he still has on the end of some of his tines is an indication he is still growing. Hopefully he grows some more and I can get some more pics. I named him Cactus for what are obvious reasons, thinking I should have named him Kodak, he's pretty photogenic. Maybe he'll come in and pose one more time just like that after the velvet is off.

[Dean Romig]

His antlers are impressive but his hindquarters are awesome!





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[Todd Poer]

I was reading some about new regulations being floated around that will eliminate feeding deer. Seems they think it will help keep chronic wasting from spreading.

That is a beautiful buck. I have one like that in my neighborhood and the only predator he has to avoid is a car with a 25 mph speed limit.

[Randy G Roberts]

Dean you must be a carnivore, me too. I love a good deer steak. At deer camp we will fry them up, put them on a biscuit with sauteed onions, can't beat it.

His antlers are impressive but his hindquarters are awesome!





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[Randy G Roberts]

There is probably some truth in that. We have had some real issues over the last few years in my neck of the woods. That deer is actually at a Lucky Buck mineral lick which probably has the same effect as feeding deer if the truth were known.

I was reading some about new regulations being floated around that will eliminate feeding deer. Seems they think it will help keep chronic wasting from spreading.

That is a beautiful buck. I have one like that in my neighborhood and the only predator he has to avoid is a car with a 25 mph speed limit.

[Joe Dreisch]

Look at the size of the antler bases at the skull! His body shape and facial features would suggest maybe 4 years old. He is very well developed with great antler genetics!! Just what you want to see from your bow stand......!

[Frank Srebro]

How about this guy? Trailcam pic taken 9 days ago.

[Gerald McPherson]

They have been rough on my fruit trees this year and now they are into my muscadines.
Good grief.Can't have a garden without an electric fence.

[charlie cleveland]

3 stands of electric fence did no good around my pea patch....done everthing the book said to do except the last final guaranted to keep deer out build a 12 foot fence around your garden....charlie

[Todd Poer]

Even one deer hitting a garden every night can do a whole bunch of damage. Even just two or three walking through browsing will work over garden pretty good.

I don't know how true it is but I have heard it said before that there are more deer now then there was when Columbus arrived. That was only 526 years ago.

BTw remember that baseball movie where they were having trouble growing grass for their field in Texas. Seems the local boys spread out some clippings from the barber shop to keep the deer away. I always wondered if that would actually work or if it was just some movie lie.

Maybe not. Searched the web and I believe everything on the web is true, or it wouldn't be there.
https://www.offthegridnews.com/survival-gardening-2/hair-and-urine-the-absolute-best-way-to-keep-animals-out-of-your-garden/

[Randy G Roberts]

That's a dandy Frank. Is he on property you hunt ?

How about this guy? Trailcam pic taken 9 days ago.

[Randy G Roberts]

So check this guy out from 2017. Do you think this could be the same deer ? I see some similarities, especially in the bases.

[Dean Romig]

I’m thinking not the same buck but most likely closely related. Same male carried gene pool.





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[Randy G Roberts]

I hope you're right Dean. Then possibly this guy is still running around even bigger than last year !

[Todd Poer]

They do grow em big in those Indiana corn fields. I have family in Indiana. Uncle is primarily a bird hunter and not much of a deer hunter, mostly he just did not like taste of venison. The few deer he has taken were massive bucks with huge antlers. The ones he does harvest most of the time just takes em to have them made into sausage mixed with some pork. I just know his butcher/processor is grinning when he shows up, what sausage eater is going to miss tenderloins.

[Randy G Roberts]

Speaking of big IN deer Todd here's one that showed up back in 2014 on 6/29 and again on 7/07 only never to be seen again. No sightings, no pics, no nothing except disappointment. He wasn't even close to being fully developed in those pics. What an animal !

[Ted Hicks]

Antler tissue is the fastest growing tissue among all mammals. They grow big deer with big antlers in Indiana and that is a good example. Looks like a 4+ year old to me...big body on him!

Here's a photo of a west-central PA buck taken about 5 weeks ago. Maybe a 2 year old, he has the dark bulbs at the tips of the tines and main beams so he has some growing to do. Kind of non-typical formation. While not a huge buck, this is a pretty good deer for the area and definitely on the list for archery season.

[Todd Poer]

Dadgum Randy that is an incredible animal. Sure that wasn't behind a high fence. Those antlers are hopefully still being enjoyed by someone.

There was this high fence operation over in Alabama. They have these massive GMO deer but I think base stock are deer were imported Midwest. They also used to have continental pheasant hunts and DIY plantation hunts. It was incredible hunting quail and pheasants and seeing those deer. BTW heaven forbid shooting a deer in there unless you were ready to get a check book out and were ready to stroke a 4 to 5 figure number.

Funny but true story. They had a deer in there once that would break the Boone and Crockett record. It got around in the big game circle and they got an offer of $1 mil up front for an individual to harvest the animal but they had to prove and guarantee that it would break the record before he would fly in to hunt it. Obviously a bunch of money and they had no way to accurately measure the deer from photos to be sure. BTW a 2000 acre high fence operation is still a tough place to hunt deer at times, a lot of places to hide and get close enough so still fair chase but target rich environment.

Anyway they make a rushed decisions based on a bright idea to just tranquilize the deer and then they could measure and verify. They did and sure enough deer would have beat the record by a good bit. Would is operative word, yep the deer had a reaction and died from the tranquilizer. Since it was not harvested in season etc. etc., no record and no money.

[Randy G Roberts]

No high fence Todd. Those pics came from a mineral lick on the back of my property. A place out of the way that I rarely bother except for monitoring cameras and hunting, almost a sanctuary if you will. He is the biggest deer I have ever seen on my place. Had this one in 2015, got a few pics in velvet, got the one pic in November but never laid eyes on him and I hunted hard. I am starting to think they might be smart, smarter than me for sure.

[Frank Srebro]

That's a dandy Frank. Is he on property you hunt ?

Yes Randy that's property I hunt.

[Todd Poer]

You have great genetics on your hunting ground. I was kidding about the high fence, but the pics of the deer you showed look like ones that people would pay top dollar to hunt.

Hope one of the rascals show up for you when are properly armed with something other than a camera.

[John Dallas]

Here's a high fencer from Michigan. Photo is thru a spotting scope. Some sportsman paid $30,000 for the challenge of shooting him while eating corn at 107 yards. Scoring was estimated to be about 440 points

[Todd Poer]

Yep that sounds about right. Have seen a few of those nontypicals at a distance at that place we went to. We even found a dead one like that and according to owners no one shot it but it died after getting into fight with another one and they locked horns and its neck was broken. They knew where it was when we told them about it but they were leaving it out until flesh was off. Seems they were wanting to have skull and horn mount. Sheds in those places are amazing as well. We found a few and always brought to the lodge since they asked us to. They would make things with them.

I can appreciate trophies like that but just not that antler crazy, but like Dean I sure appreciate some venison.

[Randy G Roberts]

I knew you were kidding about the high fences Todd. Now that picture of the one John posted is what folks like to pay for to hunt behind fences. We had a local boy here where I live that had a lot of money and he went to a fenced-in environment like that and shot himself a buck similar to that one. I recall it scoring in the upper 300 range. I did see the mount, that was impressive. Not so for the hunt.

You have great genetics on your hunting ground. I was kidding about the high fence, but the pics of the deer you showed look like ones that people would pay top dollar to hunt.

Hope one of the rascals show up for you when are properly armed with something other than a camera.

[Todd Poer]

I knew you were kidding about the high fences



Good. Sarcasm does not always play well in the written form. Sometimes it can be taken the wrong way. I guess that is what emojis are for. BTW 10 years ago I would have never thought I would use the word emoji in a sentence and it mean something. :)

[Dean Romig]

I guess the word emoticon is obsolete already...






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[Todd Poer]

Hard to say that is first time I had heard it. Had to go the Urban Dictionary and look it up. Found another new word emotibonics; which is defined as explanation of what an emoticon is. Who knew. So describing an emoticon your actually using emotibonics. Go figure, like that was needed. I am probably behind the times since Emoji was first use when Japanese started making mobile phones. I think emoticon is the new hip word the kids are down with.

Lets see how this works. My emoticon use did not convey the proper emotibonics and I am bummed out, but hope is the new dope it will do more better next time.