What happened last year?

[Hillbilly Hunter]

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

 

[TheLBLman]

Just to add to the list of factors for why we're seeing this increase in antler damaged, mostly believed to be from pedicle injuries . . . . . . . .

I believe some of the being baffled is due to data sets covering too small an acreage, and then not fully appreciating the range of most "their" bucks.

While we may not be doing much different on "our" 100 to 1,000 acres, maybe "our" buck age structure is little changed, maybe our buck:doe ratio is little changed, but . . . . . . .

"Our" bucks (during the rut when they have the most fighting encounters) can be travelling around the surrounding 10,000-plus acres!

Think about this.
Say you have 640 acres (1 square mile) that you "study" or monitor intensely.
First, all "your" deer are not centered in that property.
Just considering 1 mile in all directions around your perimeter
increases that "ranging" acreage from 640 acres to @ 5,700 acres.

Increasing it 2 miles, increases that "ranging" acreage from 640 acres to 16,000 acres!

Rutting bucks commonly travel 1 to 2 linear miles in a single 24 hr period, and over 3 miles is not uncommon.

I believe when you look more on a macro level, most areas surrounding our relatively small "study" areas, those areas have experienced a greater change in going from lower to higher buck age structure. "Our" rutting bucks are simply encountering more adversaries than in times past.

This has probably been mostly the result of the 2-buck limit coupled with increasing numbers of hunters willing to pass up yearling bucks. If we could just get more hunters to stop killing off the best antler stock at 2 1/2 & 3 1/2, I'd be much happier.

Over broad areas of many square miles, we simply have more mature bucks as compared to a few years ago. Unfortunately, a high percentage of these survivors were born with below average antler genetics, and the main reason they survived was because of their relatively small antlers.

 

[Specializedjon]

Global warming....clearly

Trust the science

 

[deerhunter10]

Interesting we had multiple last year but most were 2.5 and younger only 3 or 4, 3.5 and older. I haven't got a messed up deer yet on cameras. Don't have them all out yet but the amount of very young fawns we have is crazy.

 

[Dumbluck]

I'm seeing a few but nothing abnormal. If I was seeing what your saying BSK. I would relate it to the deer being extremely stressed last year. Our deer were border line emaciated due to a dry summer and almost no acorns. Typically stressed bucks drop antlers earlier and if they were overly stressed during the first rut they would have missed breeding the majority of the does and those does would have kept cycling until breed. My theory is they more than likely defended a doe very late in the year with already a stressed body and near dropping their antlers and ended up damaging their pedestal.

 

[BSK]

I'm seeing a few but nothing abnormal. If I was seeing what your saying BSK. I would relate it to the deer being extremely stressed last year. Our deer were border line emaciated due to a dry summer and almost no acorns. Typically stressed bucks drop antlers earlier and if they were overly stressed during the first rut they would have missed breeding the majority of the does and those does would have kept cycling until breed. My theory is they more than likely defended a doe very late in the year with already a stressed body and near dropping their antlers and ended up damaging their pedestal.

I think there's a great deal of truth to this Dumbluck. In the areas hit hardest by the drought last year, I've never seen deer in such poor shape as they were post-rut. Many bucks had dropped antlers by the end of December. I'm sure those stressors have ramifications.

 

[BSK]

The more I look at the problem, it doesn't appear pedicle damage is the primary problem. When a buck tears the core of his pedicle out, his future antler from that pedicle generally follow the trend of a cluster of spikes to eventually one big palmated spike. Yet the antler deformations I'm seeing so much of this year are primarily one beam growing in a very strange direction, and then points coming off that beam in strange manners. That kind of antler deformation is usually associated with body injuries.

 

[BSK]

Question for Ski and Mega: Considering you both saw considerable antler deformations last year, but not this year, can you determine whether any of the bucks that had deformed antlers last year have returned to "normal" growth this year?

 

[Ski]

Question for Ski and Mega: Considering you both saw considerable antler deformations last year, but not this year, can you determine whether any of the bucks that had deformed antlers last year have returned to "normal" growth this year?

Yes it seems so. On one particular property last year 7 of the bucks I regularly catch on cam had odd growth, which is roughly 50% of the regular bucks I get on cam. That's a 180 acre property. Same property this year is only 2 bucks so far. One is as you say pedicle damage with one goofy spike. The other is I assume body damage because one of his brows kinda grew into a weird double beam. All other bucks thus far are what I'd consider normal.

Sorry for the crappy pics. Been having trespassing cam theft issues last year so I'm running cheapos til I bust the bastards.

 

[Ski]

Here are a few of the more dramatic ones last year.

 

[Ski]

This buck was injured the year before last and carried his leg around limp. Then last year he was healed but his rack was very stunted for his age and had acquired a split g2 with a weird flier off the base. In hindsight I can see why he formed the split g2 because that's the way his beam looked in 2021. Notice in both 2021 pics he carries his left front leg. As often the case it was his right antler that grew weird the following year with the funky flier. But IMO his rack size was significantly stunted overall. His body healed and grew exponentially but his rack suffered.