Genetics

[Volbuck777]

I've noticed lately that genetics are changing in my area. I've hunted here for twenty plus years and the genetics were always tall and tight. Now I'm seeing different genetics. One in particular is bladed brows that sometimes turn into split brows. Most of the deer with theses brows are wide horned. Crazy to think how genes change a little over time. What are y'alls deer genetics like in your area.

 

[double browtine]

For a long time it was 5 and 7 points. Bucks missing browtines on only 1 side. Then a few 4- 6-8 pts. Now over the last 3-4 years as we have been adding different varieties of food plots and shooting more does, especially the old does that ruin your hunt by blowing at a leaf falling when they notice your truck parked by the road, has been good for better racked bucks!

 

[JCDEERMAN]

They do change most definitely over the years. We have had our place for 21 years. Used to be, most bucks would only have a brow tine on the left side, none on the right - very bizarre. That trickled out over time. For YEARS, we never had bucks with more than 8 pts. Some were big, but never more than 8 pts. Luckily that has changed and over the last 4-5 years, we have been seeing all sorts of bucks with 9-12 pts. Alot of them have 3-4" kickers off their left bases. We've had one the last 3 years with 3 main beams and a drop tine. He usually shows up around the end of October and stays for about 1.5 - 2 weeks. Hoping he will again this year - he will be 6.5 yo, we believe

 

[hitek7]

Very seldom do we have deer with over 8 mainframe points. Now kickers and stickers may be abundant but a mainframe 9 or 10 only came around occasionally. Width and height are all over the board.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I've noticed a tendency for one nice antler with the other side being a freak much smaller. And also tall and narrow with many bucks having tiny brow tines. Part of me would like the big pretty wide racks but not sure I want the attention from trespassers that comes with that. Not really unhappy with crummy racks and heavy deer to be honest. Same satisfaction to hunt them and don't have to deal with running as many trespassers off. I got a ncie 9 point last year and if I never kill another even close to him it wouldn't bother me as long as I'm shooting a buck every year or two.

 

[RobbyW]

8 points. Hunting the same place for 10 years I have pictures of 100s of bucks. Only two have had more than 8 points


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[PickettSFHunter]

I literally have a buck that looks the same almost every year on one of my places. Same 8 points, same frame, same curve in the end of a main beam. I'll shoot one and have a replacement that looks the same the next year.

 

[dogmatik]

After hunting the same farm in Clay county for over 20 years, we had noticed something odd. For the first 10 years or so, most of the bucks that were shot had puffy hair on their heads. Not sure how else to describe it, but it was thick and looked different. For the first few years we had a group of does that were always together and the oldest one would bust you everytime. My dad was adamant that we not shoot any does because that's why where the new deer come from. About 10 years ago, I convinced him to let me thin out some does and we hammered them hard. We shoot as many does as we can every year and we now see more deer than ever, yet no more fuzzy headed bucks and the racks are much more impressive. The farm we have in Moss never produced a deer that looked like the ones at the farm mentioned above.