Last year my brother took two bucks (a 4 point and a 6 point) and I accidentally took one. I didn't have my contacts in and was shooting a shot gun with only a ball slinging a 1oz slug. At 100yd I could not see his two horn antlers on the top of his head. I made the clean kill shot. All of these bucks had similar looking racks. They were close together and almost straight up. both of the ones he shot were almost crossed at the tips. I know these were young bucks as none of them had much sign of wear on their teeth. All of their molars still had relatively deep pockets. Here are my questions: 1. Is this normal for young bucks? 2. after a couple years old do antlers have a tendency to spread with age? 3. Could this be a sign of too many bucks and could this mean there are too many bucks and or inner breading? This place is crawling with deer and I mean a lot of them. One morning I watched 17 deer cross a pasture, out of range of course, in a 30 minute period of time and then a few more as I was leaving my stand last season. Oh and by the way, this season is bow only all season. No lead projectiles for my this year.
It all depends on the genetic make up. The two bucks with crossing or almost crossing beams could quite possibly be twins. You shouldn't worry about anything just yet except for taking your 4 1/2 year olds and up. If you try to stick to this then more than likely you'll notice no serious problems. Remember though, good nutrition does go a long ways on the rack! He could be a chump at 3 and a hoss at 4-5! With good diet they can grow from 20-40 inches. Up portion of inches with EXCELLENT diet.
I have already decided no one that hunts on my property will be harvesting any bucks that are young. Nothing under 3-1/2 years old and only if they have a good sized rack.
By the way you'll have people say,"He's 3 1/2 with a shy rack he won't get big." That's the people who shouldn't go in the woods. If he's only a hundred inch buck at that age, by five he could very well be a great buck! Give them time trust me!
i agree with Boodaddy. I am reading a great book on whitetail and it says the best antlers come at about age 6. i have no idea the chances of finding a buck that age as i am new to the sport (hence me reading up on behavior and other info). Racks do spread over time as it is a quick but not sure fire way to estimate age on a buck. If those deer would have had a few more years under their belts the racks might have separated more.
An excellent way of determining age of a deer is by the body itself, although not the weight. Look to see if there is any sway in the back bone and from the hind quarters if the belly goes up, across, starting to sag, or sagging. Check the head for whiteness of the face, width at snout, and also a rounded nose. Try to incorporate some of these and you'll make a good choice!
I was thinking on the same lines as you pointed out boodady. At least the whiteness on the face and larger body as in shoulder muscles and such. Most big older deer I have seen pictures of usually have pretty large bodies. I hope taking these three last year does not have a bad affect on my heard this year and the next few to come.
Those three won't but if it happened regularly for a season or more then you would have a serious problem.
I let everything walk anymore under 135-140 inches. Spike bucks look small, but with proper nutrition from good soil types and from land management can turn that little guy into a brute!
I am trying to do some land management. one food plot this year with one mineral station. Next year I will be doing more. I will be planting about 2 acres of food plots and doing some supplemental feeders if I can afford the feeders and food that is. I plan on starting another mineral station this year and keeping both up for the rest of my hunting life and passing this all on to my sons. I am not all about chasing the big bucks yet. more focus on getting to know my herd and taking does as there are not many hunters in at least a 2000acre radious. A total of 4 hunters that I know of. Until last year my propperty and other family propperty that conects for a total of about 200 acres has not been hunted in 20-25 years.
