Antler size vs age Rokcast

[AHayes111]

Thanks for sharing 40+ years of history on your experiences. The stuff is great to hear from somebody that’s done it. Not theory.

I understand on the agriculture, dear. There is no drought. Can’t explain it either, but I know I’ve seen some really big bucks living around ag, too!

Thanks for sharing

The biggest issue on ag is getting a buck with potential to live more than three years. Three points that never get bigger than 130, those will die of old age. Bucks that might be something special, they die as 160 inch four points at age three.

 

[robby denning]

The biggest issue on ag is getting a buck with potential to live more than three years. Three points that never get bigger than 130, those will die of old age. Bucks that might be something special, they die as 160 inch four points at age three.

Good point.

 

[Jman86]

This pod cast is what has landed me on this forum. The part about bucks not going down hill until the end is exactly what I have seen in my 40+ years of shed hunting. Rapid growth at first, then slowing till about age 6 and then fairly steady until death with maybe one year of decline at the end of life. However I rarely see the best set of antlers at age six. Maybe this is because bucks in SE MT just have it easier than bucks in Western WY. Probably found antlers from/watched at least a two dozen bucks that lived to 8+ and this almost always the pattern of growth, but there are always a few exceptions. The whitetail I shot a few years back comes to mind. Was always better the next year and then he exploded with mass and NT points at age eight, Pictures are from that whitetail and a 200+ mule deer from the 80's. The last year the mule deer regressed 20+ inches. Hard to say how old he was. I have seven years of antlers and I am confident he was not a 180+ two year old with the smallest single and I could have missed a year or two of sheds in that juniper jungle. At least 10 years old any way.

edit: If some of the mule deer antlers look old and chewed it is because they are. Took me 13 and 14 year to match up the two sets on the bottom row. Mostly because when I found the first two antlers a half mile apart I thought I had a set. Wrong.
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That is really cool to see

 

[Peckq710]

This pod cast is what has landed me on this forum. The part about bucks not going down hill until the end is exactly what I have seen in my 40+ years of shed hunting. Rapid growth at first, then slowing till about age 6 and then fairly steady until death with maybe one year of decline at the end of life. However I rarely see the best set of antlers at age six. Maybe this is because bucks in SE MT just have it easier than bucks in Western WY. Probably found antlers from/watched at least a two dozen bucks that lived to 8+ and this almost always the pattern of growth, but there are always a few exceptions. The whitetail I shot a few years back comes to mind. Was always better the next year and then he exploded with mass and NT points at age eight, Pictures are from that whitetail and a 200+ mule deer from the 80's. The last year the mule deer regressed 20+ inches. Hard to say how old he was. I have seven years of antlers and I am confident he was not a 180+ two year old with the smallest single and I could have missed a year or two of sheds in that juniper jungle. At least 10 years old any way.

edit: If some of the mule deer antlers look old and chewed it is because they are. Took me 13 and 14 year to match up the two sets on the bottom row. Mostly because when I found the first two antlers a half mile apart I thought I had a set. Wrong.
View attachment 721815View attachment 721817

Cool to see multiple years of growth!

 

[Pony Soldier]

When I first started hunting in the 60s there were lots of big bulls because no one wanted to eat a trophy. I remember seeing big bulls that died of old age.

As they got older the main beams got heavier and heavier but at an age the tines started to get shorter and there was also a reduction in the length of the main beams.

The strangest I saw had
massive beams but only about 18-20 " long. The tines were only 4-5 " long and were clustered near the top. He was near toothless and in poor shape. I killed a cow one time in that 18+ age range. Even the hamburger was tough. Kind of like ground up superballs.

Those conditions ended in the 70s with the rifle rut season. That cleaned out most of the bulls and for many years the majority of the calf crop. The districts I grew up in have never recovered.

Where I hunt now it is rare to see a bull over 3-5. They just don't live that long.