Antler question

[m_kat]

Yesterday evening I was out doing some scouting and saw a buck in one of my foodplots that had a real nice four point antler on one side (would have been an easy P&Y had the other side matched)and on the other side he had about a 12 inch spike that forked at the top.

I was just wondering if any one had any theories or experience with what might develop in future years. Is it just bad genetics, previous injury, or something else.

 

[5465]

m kat, from my past experience, we had a buck on the farm we were hunting on in the early 90's that had the same type of rack. we watched this deer for 3 years and nothing changed, the deer stayed the same size so my dad took him out of the herd the following gun season. i've been given many explantions as to why this happen from:a previous injury to hormonal inbalance. i tend to believe it was a hormonal inbalance or some other type of chemical inbalance, but then again it may just be a bad growing year for the buck your talking about.who knows? but i would say that this rack will continue

 

[Shredder]

Typically it is an injury either to the pedicle or a leg....Hormones usually have the effect of cactus racks. Genetics have the effects on racks but is usually both sides carrying similar features....just my experiences

 

[203ntyp]

I'd have to go with genetics, I've seen similar type deer just about every year & never noticed any injury. Good deer to cull if you get the chance.

 

[m_kat]

I got a picture of him but he was a long ways away so the quality isn't very good.

I think I might try and harvest him this year if I get the chance just to see what the deal is. thanks for the input.

 

[Deaner]

By the looks of your your picture my guess would be genetic. But I was thinking about 20 years ago I got 10 pointer. His right side was a big 7 point rack that looked like about a 3-4 year old buck. His left side rack was a perfect 3 point rack that looked like a 1 year old buck. I was showing the picture to a repair guy that works on my elevators at work and he told me that the cause from it was a result from a previous injury to his reproducive organs so his hormones were unbalanced. Don't know if there is any truth to that or not but it seemed plausible at the time when he told me this.

 

[Guest]

My guess is genetics or his hormones are definitely out of whack.If he ain't changed at all then I guess I would lean more towards genetics.