Just wondering do you know pretty much the Rack chararacteristics or genetics on the Bucks in your area as noticed on there head gear and what they are? Mine----High and tight, good Mass, and good brows, decent tine length! You would be luck to shoot a Mature Buck with over a 16" IS spread. Spread does not matter much on score but it sure does make a good looking Rack. Its noticable on the younger Bucks as well as they have that high and tight look also. The Buck I killed this last season was just a touch over 14" IS spread and scored over 144". It makes it sometimes hard to field judge as a Big body under a tight Rack will fool ya sometimes. High and tight is the # 1 noticable thing for me thats pretty consistent every year! Whats yours? This not limited to just Mature Bucks, Its a question for all!!!
Cool topic Dan! I've got some pics Ill try and post of how similar alot of our bucks look. Mostly wide racked typical 8s and 10s with little to no junk. The 10s generally have crab claws.
Spread can be one of the better adders to score. Mass is probably in last place. If your buck would have had a 20" spread it would have been a 150. Mass is usually a few inches one way or another. High and wide with good brows is the way to go. That being said, the deer in my area seem to have short brow tines. Some have tall g-1's but most are short. I'm going to have to start culling the short g-1 bucks!
Split brow-tines are pretty common around my neck of the woods, I've killed several over the years and picked up a lot of sheds with them too! We have pretty darned decent main beam length as well. Were we fall short a bit is in the mass department compared to what I have witnessed in the farm country and the mid-west.
I'm not sure that I have noticed any sort of common trait with the racks but one thing I have definately noticed in my hunting area is the body weights. I've seen 2.5 yr olds pushing 250# on a fairly consistant basis. 3.5 yr old I killed a few yrs ago went over 275 field dressed. Seems quite unusual to me. Blessings......Pastorjim
The first 3-4 years I hunted my area g2s and g3s with kickers were all the rage. I think about every deer we saw had that. But the last 2 I really haven't seen that come out at all. Don't now why. All the deer around have just been pretty much straight up typical the last 2 years except for the deer I shot this year and his twin thats running around up there. Although I do have a ton of young deer and I guess that could be a trait that just doesn't show up until later. One thing I hope doesn't take hold is a deer that the tines come out the side of the beam and just go strait out. Seen him the last 2 years. His right side is gorgeous but his left is spindly with the tines coming off all sideways. Hoping its due to injury and not genetics.
Seems like we have a lotta tall and wide typical 8's and 10's with decent mass. My 153" from 2011 had a 24" IS. The only nontypical characteristics I seem to notice is on the older deer and it generally entails some trashy brows or stickers off the G2/G3's. No drop tines or anything like that. We did have a cool young buck last summer I nicknamed halo because his main beams actually came high and tight and over lapped in the front. I'm curious to see what he'll grow into.
Our deer generally are 8 pointers with weak brows, 3 1/2 yr olds gross around 130". The difference between a 2 1/2 yr old and a 3 1/2 yr old is about 15 inches, of mass, tine length, and beam length.
Good grief! Those are some healthy deer. I think I would either have to make sure I had somebody lined up to help drag it out or shoot some darned young deer LOL. I'm getting too out of shape and old to be draggin that much weight for much distance. I guess if I ever get a chance to hunt around you, I better start working out a few months ahead of time
High and tight with no or only one brow tine. Of course thouse arent the 'mature deer' not enough of those to gain a comparison.
Symmetrical bucks in my area. 90 percent of the bucks i see would have less than 5" of deductions. Non typicals and non typical point are pretty rare.
Back in the day heavy and wide but nothing much over 7 to 8 Inches on tine length. As of right now, still wide but skinny mass now. Length Is also starting to get nice.
So far I have notice 3. One is usually a 6 or 8 point that is wide and open with really tall times including brow tines. I refer to them as tall considering the others in the area. The second is really tall and tight. They don't have much for mass but, are really tall. I have seen anything from really small 4 points to really small tall thin 8 points. Then there is what I call the blade! One side has small points. The other side looks like a sword blade. All three of them are distinctly different and you can tell as soon as you see them.
My brother in law, who is a taxidermist. He has all the jaw bone molds and everything that goes with it. Whenever we bring a deer home from there, the first thing everyone comments on is how large they are. It would be pretty unbelievable to me too had I not actually seen some of the bucks that have come out of there over the years. Blessings.......Pastorjim
In SW WI the bucks I have taken have been fairly typical 8 and 10 pointers with thick G-1s and G-2s that are always shorter than the G-3s. The neighbors though have taken a couple of droptines in the past 5 years. I have yet to see one on cam or in person on the land we hunt. Southern IL public land we see a little of everything. We see spindly racks on some of the deer and then we will see outrageous mass on others. For example in the same 10 acres in the public land my neighbor has taken a 23" wide nearly-perfectly symmetrical 10 pointer that scored 154" and I tagged a 14" wide main-frame 10 pointer with 4 stickers that scored 152".
One two of the places I hunt the racks characteristics are pretty normal, 8 to 10 points, 17-20 inch spreads. One the property I hunt on the Republican has some really cool odd looking racks. There is one buck with split G2s with one of those having 3 splits, it looks like a trident.
Around here, they are wide and tall with decent mass. The past two years, my bucks have had 20" inside spreads. Both are pretty much 9 points that score 150" and 151 3/8". Every now and then I will see one with some junk on it or abnormal stuff, but not very often.
