Photo Gallery: From Buttons to Booner | Deer Hunting | Realtree Pretty cool article with pictures of a bucks growth and decline for 12 1/2 years.
That deer looked awesome till his last year i was thinking he would go down after 8 or 9 lol thanks for the share!!
Pretty cool. I think I remember seeing that photo essay before. It's amazing how drastically they change in that 2.5-5.5 time frame. He was quite frail looking in that final photo. Thanks for sharing.
Remember reading this last year... I think the craziest thing is how much they grow from 1.5 to 2.5. Going from a spike to a decent 85 inch 8pt in a year is incredible.
Very, very cool. Thanks for posting. This tells me that good nutrition early, as a fawn and yearling are as important if not more important as when they're older. Get their bodies taken care of first and they'll be able to grow bigger, better antlers with less assistance later.
I wish they would do this for bucks in Northern Wisconsin, because their growth aint anything like these pictures. A 4.5 year old in Sawyer County, WI looks like that 2.5 year old. Wisconsin Outdoor News did an article on this, i just wish they could track a buck up in that kneck of the woods and do a similiar picuture/age comparison
Crazy how big a couple of the jumps in inches and weight of the deer. I took away that you never know what they'll turn into with time. Each deer will have a maximum growth and stick around that level for awhile. One of the years towards the end his antlers turn darker too. I was wondering if this has anything to do with age? Anyone know any concrete facts on this?
Wonder if a lot of his drop off and change was due to nutritional changes. I doubt he had much if any teeth left, I'm sure he had plenty of browse but wonder how much nutrition was lacking from corn, acorns and other solid foods. That would be something to watch the same deer for 12 years. Makes you wonder just how big some of the record book deer would have been a year or 3 later.
