Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting What antler charcteristic is your weakness?

The beauty of deer antlers is the endless variety of shapes, sizes and general makeups they come in. I've personally seen the following that embody what I'm talking about: super wide rack but with no tine length, tall tined rack with no spread and short main beams, incredible mass but no tine length or beam length, short kickers and split tines on a generally small rack.

When you are deciding whether not to use your prized buck tag and assuming the buck is considered mature for the area, what antler characteristic in a rack will tempt you even if the rack as a whole doesn't quite measure up to your preferred standards?


For me any buck that has stickers, kickers, drops, splits, burs, palmations or any other form of non-typical points gets me excited. The muley buck in the attached photo had great height going for him but very short forks, no width and ok mass but his overall appearance was enough to convince my trigger finger. What trips your trigger?

[url=http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg546/jaymeo/IMG_0593.jpg]

Lots here with 3 or 4 on one side and a spike or 2 on the other is always a death sentence, if I am able to get a shot. miles

Tall symmetrical 6-point!

Whether it has any or not.

Mass. I don't care about score, nor do I much care about width. But I like to see consistent mass

Massive, wide, and tall.

I like mass and long, dagger-like tines. Spread does little for me, and a wide buck with short tines is just not as handsome to me, especially if his main beams don't ever turn back in toward the center. Thick chocolate horns get me going the most. But that's a still a minor deal, as I just like mature bucks and don't pass a husky-bodied older deer around here, regardless of how "pretty" his antlers are. I'm going to be happy to get him.....

Tall eye guards. Love 'em.





P

Width and kickers. I like'em trashy.

I'll generally shoot the first legal thing that crosses my path. Blacktails where I hunt are usually pretty "typical". Most racks are balanced. We'll see 3x4s or 2x3s fairly often, but nothing real weird. If I do see something weird, I'll kill it.

One of the coolest weird things I've seen was a buck with a double rack ... two main beams coming up from the skull on each side. It was a 5x5, but it was a 2x3 plus a 3x2 rather than having single main beam on each side. The whole thing was a "basket" about the size of a medium cantaloupe. It was mounted on my grandpa's wall.

I also saw a 4 x "cactus" once ... but not in deer season. Never found it again.

Tom

Legal Antlers.

Symmetry

+1, that and being a clean 4x4 with good mass. Been looking for one like that a long time:) One day maybe!!

Drop points!!

The absolute best is a hair covered bump. They are far and away the very best eating and whether I shoot 'em or not, half of them will not live to see next year. That makes them almost freebies!

Thick then symmetrical. Nothing sexier than a BIG/THICK 8 point.

Tall, wide 8 points with good mass from base to main beam tips. Two to three inches outside the ears and I draw my knife.

Think John Breen buck. Big even typicals,and if you want to tack on a bunch of mass I won't complain. Like someone said. Wide racks with short tines don't get it. Same for muleys. Big heavy clean rack on a big old stud of a deer.

MASS!

Buttons.

I must remain competitive in the Dink-a-thon.