Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Antler growth stages of deer I have shot

An interesting photo that the local F&G seems to be sooo jealous of. They asked me to donate this to the local office for everyone too see...... Yeah right "donate" I'll donate it when they donate me a Big horn sheep tag!

The photos go from a button buck through a big 8yo deer. Most years and antler development is between them

Cool. Goes to show, genetics continue on. That one wasn't very promising to start with and though nice at the end, never really got to be a bruiser and certainly nothing that you'd want breeding your does if you had a choice.

Especially when you see 18 month old bucks that are 8 plus points already when this one was spike.

Those are all blacktails but the far right, that one is a whitetail.

Do you know how hard it was to pass big bucks when I was looking for the fork horn and the spike for this collection!

The second from the left, I was stalking to shoot, and was about 70 yards out when I could not get closer without being seen. He was with about 5-6 does and a couple younger bucks. About the time I was stumped at how to close the gap. Then without warning they bolted and ran across the side hill. I lost sight of the big buck but could clearly see all the others bounding across the clearcut.

This 50 yard wide 3/4 mile long strip of woods in a steep hill side canyon was the only cover within a mile. I knew that bigger deer was in this canyon. I waited to see him come out about 45 minutes. After that, I began slowly sliding my way through the woods tree by tree hoping to see him bedded, or eating.

About the point at which I closed the distance from the last position I saw him I would have been about 20 yards away. I stopped and glassed the area ahead looking for antler points or a the flick of a tail. I could hear movement of some sort just ahead, but the sounds were faint and inconsistent, maybe a chipmunk?

I creeped along to the next big tree. Then I saw it........ nope I did not see the deer, I saw the cougar eating the deer! A lion killed that deer which is what spooked the whole group. As I contemplated how to get an arrow in the lion, he spotted me and took off in the brush. I went down and saw the deer. He had a broken neck and some of the guts removed. The hind quarters were fine and the backstraps were fine.......... hhhmmm Okay I'll share, I need that big rack, so I split the meat with the lion, left him all the guts. I tagged the deer and packed out the hind quarters and the backstraps. The lion got the rest.

If you look close in this photo, you can see the bite marks thru the nose and behind the eyes. Maybe not, I can post a better photo for anyone interested. Its the first time ever I partnered with a cougar to get a deer!

Ok, my bad, I thought you had one that was a sorta house pet and you had all the sheds from each year put on fake skulls.

I don't know blacktails.

I know whitetails. I know that you can have a young buck show his colors early on. I"ve seen up to 13 points on a yearling. ANd nothing more than tiny spikes.

From what I know a bit about Sitkas, those older bucks would grace my walls happily.