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Antler Characteristics/Genetics- YOUR AREA

Sligh1

Sligh1

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Curious of what kind of racks are in your area and does there seem to be dominating features, attributes, genetics, etc? It seems that as I hunt some parts of the state the genetics are far better than other areas. Even with just a 10 mile drive sometimes. ALMOST everyone I know complains about too many 8 points compared to 10+ points- sound consistent with you too?

One of my areas seems to have tons of fork g-2 bucks or multiple points- many 12-15 pointers, amazing scoring bucks at older ages (even high scorers at young ages- EXAMPLE, we had a 180" 3 year old one time). Another area I hunt I NEVER seen a deer that scored over 160" BUT I do see many mature deer. A 3rd area has a abundance of poor scoring bucks that max out maybe 140-150 on average.

When we're talking major differences on scores, size, points, mass, etc in certain areas that ALL contain mature deer- do you all feel it's mainly genetic, do you feel like there's vast nutrition differences, a combo, what???

One theory I have with nutrition- when I get into areas with bigger rolling hills, more pasture, less crop and the absence of that rich river bottom ground- I notice the quality/score of bucks is far less. VS When I hunt the rich, flat river bottom areas they seem to contain far more "high scorers", extra points, splits, junk and mass, likely due to all the extra minerals and nutrients in soil. (even generally poor soil counties have rich river bottom land in areas). Does anyone else notice this? *Too many deer obviously can hurt growth and habitat/nutrition

What's the story with your area- high or low scoring mature bucks? Examples too like: wide bucks with short tines, narrow tall buck with mass, drop tines, non-typicals, lots of 8 points, etc. Do your bucks seem to max out at a certain range in your area (for example- you've never seen a mature buck over 170" or WHATEVER) How does that relate to genetics and nutrition in your area? What is your area like for terrain, nutrition, crops, crop land quality, etc?
 
One of the farms I hunt has pretty much every kind of buck around. I've seen tall racked deer, I've seen a few non typicals with drop tines and junk, and I've seen mature deer with 120" brittle racks and 300lb bodies.

The other farm I hunt has a lot of wide racked 8 pointers and they can get BIG. That farm is river bottom ground but there is not a lot of crop fields nearby, just dense forest.

The only consistency I've seen over the years is that bucks that get huge bodies, like 250+ pounds, don't have big racks. It always seems like the huge racks I see are on bucks who look like they only weigh about 200 lbs but are lean and muscular. I don't know why that is.
 
Most of the mature bucks that I see in our area have really tall tines and split tines and kickers are also pretty common.
 
Unfortunately, my area produces a lot of narrow, clean 8 points with little mass. I see very few deer that make it past 130 inches. . Most the bucks I see are in the 15-16 inch wide range.
 
I would basically agree...

Over the past 25 years or so of bow hunting I have spent chunks of time, as in 5-8+ years in mostly consecutive years, in three distinct hunting areas, all of which are miles from one another. I will say that in each area that I have seen a dominant antler type or pattern in terms of split points, even/odd(9 pointers and 11 pointers v. 8 pointers and 10 pointers), mass characteristics, tine length, etc, but also a secondary dominant characteristic present as well.

In other words, it's almost as if there are 2 main "families" of buck characteristics in a given area. It seems like a good percentage of the racks follow one characteristic, such as wide, long tined, split points, etc, but if not, then there is a good chance that they follow the "other" trend, high and tight, thick mass, etc.

FWIW, I once took a found rack into a sporting goods store to show it to a man working there that I knew hunted the area that I found this buck in. He recognized the rack immediately from 15 feet way as coming from "his area". He was right too and he did not know where I found that dead buck in advance. In "his area", many racks had a typical, even count frame that was fairly angular and the right G2 was always weak to it's matching left G2 and the rest of the rack too. This buck fit this pattern and he knew it the minute he saw it.
 
Just a little bit of mass in my area.... ;)
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One the main farm I hunt we get a lot of mainframe 8's with split 2's or multiple kickers on the G-2's. Or we get wide short-tined tens.

In the past couple years we have been seeing some really tall brows and split G-3's. Hopefully those genetics stick around.

We quit pushing the farm with shotguns 3 years ago and the results have been huge.
 
I see a lot of 8's one year then I see a lot of 10's the next. Some have great mass and some not so much, some have tall tines and some are short. One thing that seems to be more common than not is crabclaws at the ends of the beans. Several deer seem to have that in common, but that's about it.
 
Mature deer in my area have always had alot of stickers on the bases. Most of them in the same exact places even. We've got deer that were killed twenty years apart and if you cut off the main beam at the brow you couldn't tell the difference.

Another trait we usually see is seven pointers. Big ol' crab claw on the left and four on the right, everytime. The first time we even saw the gene was a 9 1/2 year old killed during shotgun and we just thought it was due to his age. Then the year after that another one was killed and so on and so on. People usually cringe when I tell them about the seven point trait but i'm not complaining. It doesn't seem to stunt their potential at all. Good tine length, over 18 inches wide, and the best thing of all is that they tend to put on great mass. Especially on the crab claw side.

Almost forgot to answer some of your questions. As for my terrain, I hunt roughly 800 acres, it's all a mix of pasture, crop, crp, thick thick timber, and cedars. As for max out score, we havn't really seen a limit yet. You get the usual 150's 160's 170's, but there are always the old wise ones that you never knew were there until you're shootin at them. Have more than enough little ones to go around as well. Nutrition wise they're just regular old iowa corn fed deer.
 
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In one area I hunt there are a lot of what I call "freak bucks". Goofy but cool non-typicals with sides that look nothing like the other. Average mass. Almost all of them have "knuckles". The minority are very balanced, clean typical 10's. We've seen several pushing net Boone over the years.

The other area, where I spend a majority of my time I've seen a little of everything. Mostly mainframe 8's and 10's. All of them have weak brow tines and their left sides are slightly taller than their right. If allowed to get to a mature age, they seem to really pack on the mass and start to sprout plenty of junk, probably in the 5-7yr age class. There has been 170 class clean 8's killed ON the farm I hunt and just across the property line a matched set was found a couple years ago with both sides well over 110" with 25" of mass per side. So basically I never count anything out, but for the most part the good deer I see are as previously described.
 
Vast majority of the mature bucks at the friendly confines are mainframe 10's. Dual brows are very common often on both G1's, zero droptines and very few non-typs. Most of the most mature bucks have very solid base mass and if they lack anything, it's typically height rather than width. Stickers on or near the bases are common.

At my old stomping grounds from yesteryear, forked G2's were a practical guarantee in a particular block of sections I took a handful of bucks from.
 
One farm I hunt with some buddies will show that there will be a at least 1 sticker point below the brow on deer 2 years old or older. It's almost always there on any buck shot on the farm. Some will have 2, some will have 4, but pretty much any older buck has the one token 2 inch sticker off one base. Cool genetic when they get to 5 years old and it turns into 6 or 10 stickers.
 
Got a big problem of having bucks with no browtines up by my dad's place in WI. Its typically just one area that we see it, but they're starting to spread out a bit now.
 
I hunt close to the Des Moines river below Red Rock, nice mix of timber and crop land. The most common trait I see is a common base G2 on the right side. We have tall heavy clean 8's 10's and 12's and short tined massive deer with lots of extra points, plenty of mature bucks from 150-180.
 
Only been in the bow hunting game for 4 or 5 years now, and have just been really serious the past few. The main farm that I hunt is about 225 acres with approx. 90-100 of timbered draws and 125 acres of corn or beans. It is surrounded by a private owner of 600 acres that is managed with a ton of timber and food.

I have noticed in the past year that we have an abundance of main frame 8's and a few non typicals. I have seen very few mainframe 10's on the farm. I personally like the big 8 point frames so I am happy with the farm. This year 3 main frame 8's were harvested and went 153", 157", and 160" all gross scores. Split G2's and brow kickers seem to be very common. The year prior there was a main frame 8 with double drops that grossed 204".

Max seems to be in the 160/170" area other than the 200"er that was taken in the past. We are doing our part on the 225 acres just as the neighbor is on his 600 acre piece, I believe things can only get better.

Great post by the way.
 
In many past years my farms have held clean eights and tens with minimal brows. and the ten pointers always lacked good G4s or atleast one of the G4s were always weak. in the past couple years ive picked up some better farms. one of which seems to hold bucks with 12pt typ frames. I had encounters with 5 diff bucks this year on one farm that were twelves, some very small and a couple big. another farm holds good deer and most ten pointers have dominatly long G4s in this perticular area. And some how out of the countless farms Ive hunted over the years 10 of my 13 bucks on the wall all seam to have the exact same 2-3 sticker between the base and the brow. over all the only trait ive never had the luck of having with my deer on all my farms would be mass. I have a couple that carry over 45" of mass but there far and few between.
 
I have alot with split brows and mule deer forks on the G2s. even yearling bucks will walk around with splits and forks. alot of 10's around the 140. seems like 3 years ago alot of tall tined, narrow bucks, but now we are seeing more and more width on theh bucks. try to pass on the wider deer hoping they breed that nice width in the herd. that with tall tines and than put mass equals boones. lol
 
One area I shed hunt, I find antlers that all have an inner ridge that runs along the inside edge of the main beam and comes out to a crab claw g4. I thought that was pretty unique the first time I found a shed like that but now have accumulated about 10 sheds all from the same area and all have the exact same characteristic. The crazy thing is, I am pretty sure they are all off of different deer.
 
one farm i hunt has 4 bucks that have forked g2s.
the same farm has produced 2 freak bucks with one big side and 1 small side.
then i have 1 farm that has alot of forked browtine bucks.
 
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