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Chocolate brown?

L

loneranger

Well-Known Member
Most of the bucks Ive taken have generally cream colored antlers. This older buck this year has a dark chocolate color all the way to the ends of all the tines. What causes this? Old age ? minerals in diet? Thanks
 
My experience with color of racks are attributed to two things: 1) Where do they bed? Dark woods leans toward darker antlers. 2) Type of trees the buck is rubbing....

Bucks at home that spend the majority of there time in big thick woods and rub on hardwood saplings have darker antlers. Bucks that are out in the sun or open areas racks get bleached out. Just my opinion......
 
I think its only related to the trees they rub that gives their antlers the staining.

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arm said:
I think its only related to the trees they rub that gives their antlers the staining.
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^^^

But I don't know if that has anything to do with lack of significant precipitation? Maybe in a dry year, the trees they rub are more acidic and could stain the antlers more?
 
Here the bucks living mostly in coniferous woods trend to be darker than the ones found in deciduous or mixed timber.
 
Most of the deer at my grandpas farm in Clarke County are dark colored racks. All 3 of the bucks I have shot off of there are dark, but my uncle did shoot a deer with a light colored rack. I have always wondered the same question, thanks for the information! :D
 
Well if darkness makes em dark than this buck,being old as I think he might be, must have gotten that old by spending most of his time hiding and only coming out after dark. What he rubbed on might explain dark aroundthe bases, but he is dark to the tips of his tines.
 
I've wondered the same thing. There's a buck in my area that has a really dark rack, and he is about as nocturnal as they get. The only time I've seen him or have pictures of him in daylight are really late in January, or during rut when he's with a doe. This always led me to believe it was due to not being in the sun much.
 
I've always believed it was 1)Nutrition (Acorn, Ag food, browse) and 2)Genetics. The sunlight exposure is another angle to consider however.
 
I believe it's how clean the velvet is taken off and how much blood remains on the antler then time they spend in the light. More light exposure means more bleaching.
 
I have always been told the dark brown is caused by two things 1. the bucks beading in swamps 2. How fast or slowly the velvet drys.
 
They are usually darker when rubbing coniferous trees, look to Northern MN or Canada. A lot of dense forest, a lot of conifers. Just like pine tar on a baseball bat or helmet, dark. Get into open spaces and they are bleached, look at sheds, they are usually really white if found in the open. Has nothing to do with age.
 
I think it must have just as much to do with genetics. The reason I say this is that where I hunt and watch deer we have very few bucks with dark antlers. Only one buck that I remember that had very dark colored antlers. This buck had a dark rack like you would see in Canada but lived on the same prairie as all the other bucks. I was lucky enough to pick up a side off him in February and it still had a dark brown color and most our sheds are pretty bleached by shedding time. The following year he got even darker with almost black bases and brows and dark brown to the end of his main beams. We don't have any swamps or forests so has to have something to do with genetics? Or possibly age? This was an older buck that appeared for a couple years then we never saw him again or heard of anybody shooting him. He was a high 150's buck and appeared to be 5.5 or older when we first discovered him.
 
Then again I could be totally wrong, just my personal observations. Google it, you will get many different thoughts
 
Baby-G said:
My experience with color of racks are attributed to two things: 1) Where do they bed? Dark woods leans toward darker antlers. 2) Type of trees the buck is rubbing....

Bucks at home that spend the majority of there time in big thick woods and rub on hardwood saplings have darker antlers. Bucks that are out in the sun or open areas racks get bleached out. Just my opinion......
Click to expand...

Your opinion is spot on for 95% of dark stained antlers, pine trees will be the #1 tree rubbed for a dark rack. jeff~
 
Most of the bucks I have shot on riverbottom ground have dark antlers even though there are no coniferous trees where I hunt.Mostly willows get rubbed where I hunt.Willows are a softer wood.So I would think it would have more to do with the trees they rub than anything else.But of course the sun bleaching is also to be considered if the buck spends most of oits time bedding in crp not the woods.
 
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