Thursday, June 15, 2006
How Big Can Buck Antlers Grow?
It’s a good question, and one I’m still trying to determine. I’ve grown bucks with antlers scoring very high, and they are truly majestic animals.
But I know of much larger animals. The Boone & Crockett record book whitetail buck for the 24th Big Game Awards from 1998-2000 scored 197 6/8 in the typical category. The largest nontypical whitetail buck for that same period scored 266 1/8. Monstrous bucks indeed.
However, Milo Hanson of Biggar, Saskatchewan still holds the all-time typical buck record with a score of 213 5/8 points. The all-time nontypical whitetail buck scored 333 7/8, and it was found dead in 1981 in St. Louis County, Missouri.
Now those are monster bucks. Since I’ve had my private deer ranch, I’ve worked very hard to grow something that large. It is very difficult to do.
Wild bucks occasionally exceed what one might consider to be a normal or even a large buck. However, such huge bucks are very uncommon anywhere in North America.
It’s relatively easy to grow bucks scoring 160 to 170, but it is impossible to do with every buck in the deer herd. There is only so much room on private land or on state or federal land that will produce bucks of such size.
These super-bucks, if you will, are uncommon everywhere. Each year we hear of someone shooting an exceptionally large buck, but all things are relative. If most bucks in an area average a score of 60 points, one that scores 100 points is unusual.
In areas where conditions are right, and bucks can grown to 100-120 points, one that turns up scoring 150 points in most unusual. The larger the buck grows, the more uncommon it becomes.
Finding a 150-class buck on my land isn’t easy but it can be done. Locating a 160-class buck is even more difficult, and one scoring 170 to 180 points doesn’t happen often. A buck on private land that scores higher than 180 is something we seldom see.
Let’s face it. Big bucks are the results of good genetics, abundant food supplies, an excellent amount of the trace minerals needed for great antler growth, and time. Time is the one key factor that is required to grow huge antlers.
Sure, I have a fenced-in enclosure. I manage for big bucks, but people who hunt state land or private unfenced land can work together to grow larger bucks. Doing so involves a very simple premise.
Don’t shoot the little spikes, fork-horns, six-points and eight-pointer. The little basket racks are only one-and-a-half years old. Just think what could happen if you and all of your neighbors passed on that little buck, and allowed it to grow?
That buck will be slightly bigger at 2 1/2 years, bigger yet at 3 1/2 years, and a true trophy buck at 4 1/2 years of age. But, which of you will shoot that buck at 1 1/2 years of age?
It happens. People want bragging rights over their friends, and if a small eight-point comes through, John Doe will shoot it because it has more points, thus greater bragging rights, than Billy-Bob Jones’ 6-point.
That is the major rub on open land. No one is happy shooting antlerless deer, and everyone wants to shoot a buck, so the first animal with bone on its head that wanders past, gets shot.
Frankly, we shoot far more antlerless deer on my enclosure than big bucks. Competition among deer produces stress, and too much stress works toward the production of smaller deer. The DNR has preached shooting antlerless deer for years, and some people do it, but too many people are selfish and want to shoot a buck.
I practice a form of Quality Deer Management on my land. We take a number of antlerless deer each year, and in some years, it is a very large number. If I, and my friends, don’t keep the antlerless deer thinned out, it grows out of control. This is counter-productive to a well managed deer herd.
I can’t force anyone to do anything. However, if I wanted big bucks on my land, I’d be taking antlerless deer whenever possible, and give the existing bucks a minimum of three years to grow.
Hunters who did so would find, after the first year, they were seeing fewer deer but more larger bucks. It’s a concept that works, but it also is a concept that many hunters will never accept.—The Whitetail Wizard