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?

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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.

Winner!Winner! Chicken dinner!

Yeah for me, if there's a drop tine at exactly a 61.27 degree angle that reaches the end of the nose, but doesn't exceed it, man I'm all in.


WHAT A BUNCH OF CRAP!

Just give me a legal buck-any legal buck. You can't eat horns, and tag soup really sucks.

Symmetry with mass and/or character. I will take a thick tight 6 point over a spindly 8 point.

But sometimes; "Holy crap... look at the size of that thing!" trumps everything. Case in point.

I've always wanted a 20" wide deer. Short tines wouldn't bother me if he was 20"

either dinks, injured, or it has to be greater than 10 points.

My biggest so far is a 10 point, so shooting another 8 or so is moot.

I just go out and kill meat, and will generally let bigger bucks walk.

Exactly. I think a large 6 point is an under-appreciated masterpiece.

I'm like RWE,

As a dedicated meat hunter, spikes & forks are by far the tastiest !

Have to agree here. I've always had a thing for a drop-tine. I've only seen one in the wild...and he was about 40-50 yards away, while I was hunting with my compound.

It was the day before gun season started. I sat that stand a lot that season, hoping to get him, but he never resurfaced.

This! and drop tines! but long points and width added in don't hurt none.

I like atypical oddballs. Given a choice between a massive typical and a massive atypical, I'll pop the atypical.

#1. Chocolate colored antlers!

#2. I would love to get bigger than an 8 one day. I have a couple, need a chocolate 10.

Also, over the years I've seen a couple with double main beams. Never had a shot at them. I'd love to get the chance.

My BIL has been an avid whitetail hunter all his life. He's killed tons of 8 and 9 points, never a 10. I started hunting about 7-8 years ago. My first buck was a 20 inch wide 10 point. My BIL couldn't believe it!

x3 - I have only seen one while hunting. Tall, long, wide 3x3 whitetail - very cool. Makes me think of how much I would also like a huge, heavy 5x5 elk over an equivalent 6x6

Doubt I will ever see one like this again so I jumped at the chance to take it.

Here's a Chocolate horned buck for ya! Horns wet with the morning dew. Elk

Here is a very symmetrical 10 point my son killed a few years back. Made a great looking mount!

Mass.

THIS

I'm a width kind of guy. I also like uniqueness and drop tines but width is my biggie.

In Moscow, Idaho I once saw a euro mount of a smallish mule deer/whitetail hybrid that was absolutely amazing. It was a small (20" wide or so) typical 4x4 mulie rack with a basket 5x5 whitetail rack (maybe 12" wide or so) growing out of where the mule deer rack's eye guards should have been.

I would faint if I got something like that.

This one Did it for me!!!!!!Fog is your friend.





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Yup, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Gorgeous and not all too common.

Ditto.

A lot of other antler characteristics require some reflection and study. Mass leaps out and slaps you in the face....even at distance....without alpha binoculars.

You know it's time to shoot. No questions.

When I see the buck and think, 'I'd pay $400.00 to put that one on the wall', then it meets my criteria to be a shooter.

Drop tines.

ringworm, I have killed a bunch here that looked like that. I don't see them as much as I used to, so maybe I am doing some good. miles

Mass, mass, mass. The thicker the better and I like it when it carries it's girth through the whole rack, especially tines.

Generally my weekness is the first one with legal antlers.

When Karen and I used to hunt near Jordan, Montana, we'd usually spend the first couple of days just driving around and figuring out what kind of bucks were on the ranch ... that year.

Sometimes, the good-to-great bucks would be up and out of the Missouri Breaks and sometimes they weren't.

Anyway, on about the third day, we'd start picking our deer.

THEN, one year, this was the very first deer I saw and I fell in love with the shape of his antlers. So, he just had to die.

I killed him with my .280 Ackley Improved using a prototype 160-grain Ballistic Tip. He was right at 400-yards. Normally, I would have stalked him, but I wanted him so badly, I just killed him right there.

BANG - FLOP KILL

To my way of thinking, he had it all. Nope, I've never put a tape on him ... Why spoil it?

Blessings,

Steve

In chocolate

That was me, back in 2007, talking about shooting "The Big One." in The Savage Speaks Again.

I have not shot anything bigger than TBO since. In fact, I'm probably due. Of course, I've been telling myself that for 7 years now. Up until TBO, I had a simple rule:

Only shoot a buck if he was bigger than last year's. That worked up to a point. Then I had to add provisios like:

1) If you don't shoot a buck the previous year, the scale resets
2) If you have to finish off a wounded buck, the scale resets
3) . . .

. . . pretty soon it was meaningless. I finally had to admit that I was just another naked ape with a rifle and gave up.

The problem was, after TBO, where do you go? Granted, the state record came from the next county over. TBO was 275 lbs. I've seen 300 pounders. However, I got to figuring one day and came up with a number: at any given time, there less than a dozen deer bigger than TBO roaming my county.

Since 2007, I've shot my #3 and #4 best deer. I've also passed on a nice 10 pointer that came right under my stand in 2010 during October Muzzleloader Season, and after he was gone I got to asking myself why I'd let him walk. The best answer I could find was that shooting that animal would have pretty well ended my season a month before Deer Camp officially opened.

That's my first weakness. I love the ritual of Deer Camp and hunting in those few weeks in November. Little else matters.

My other weakness? It all comes back to TBO. I'm fairly certain I will have a bigger deer in my sights some time before I die, but until he shows up, I'll always be asking myself if I should hold out for something bigger or be happy with what just stepped out from behind the cedars.

whent out the front door and looked over the hill and it looks like we have some dinks hanging around.this is the same deer in all pics.

I'll come down and cull for you, if you need me to.

D@MN dinks!

Hi David. I don't know if he is going to make it much longer. watched some tag team bow hunters after him last night they took a shot but clean miss i watched it all unfold from the yard here. i do know a guy is next in line when muzzy open up if he can manage to make it through that then i have a third season tag.but by then i hope the the dinks dad shows up. he is here but as long as they want to chase babys im not telling them that daddy is here to.

I'm rooting for you.

Nice thats what dreams are made of.

Here is one I took a few years back

These days, antlers small enough that I don’t feel compelled to get the buck shoulder-mounted. Still fail in that once in a while.

These days, antlers small enough that I don’t feel compelled to get the buck shoulder-mounted. Still fail in that once in a while.

Here in Maryland, we don't get the giant massive bucks like some of you guys have in the midwest. We absolutely don't have Mulies.

But here are a couple that float my boat.

I forgot this one.

MASS!

Wide, tall, mass, cheaters, back scratchers, large brow tines.

I get plenty of doe tags so meat is not a problem for me and my hunting area is full of dinks. When traveling 300+ lb deer with mass and tall tines is what I seek. At home I'd just rather kill does as I have not seen what I would call a good buck yet , I'll eat my buck tag its fine by me. They ain't gonna get any bigger being dead.

This worked.

Who's house?

That one Skane killed a couple years back had me drooling on my screen, if I shot that one it would all be downhill from there on no matter what crossed my path.


MM

This one got my attention today on my Game Camera. Came in on the 22nd of Sept 8:30 AM. Tom

ive seen it in person, its more impressive than the pics. matter of fact, scott has a bunch of dandys ;-)

I'll vouch for that!

IMHO tapes and books are about worthless. Unless of course you like to brag... I don't care for bragging and don't care for folks that do it.

Nice buck Steve!

My take.... I"m constantly trying to improve genetics... I shoot whats not good for the herd every time I see it. Until I'm out of tags.

I"m finally getting a solid 10 point pool at home and am starting to think about whacking every legal 8 I see that I have tags for, IE breeding age ones. Leave the 10s alone and life will be even nicer IMHO.

Can't believe I got to the point of passing a 10 though... had not ever shot a 10 until about 5 years ago.

Out and about I"m just as happy to eat a cull or doe if the herd needs thinning.

I am a meat hunter. I will NOT shoot promising bucks though, even if they are all I see.

Caveat is we have a long season, a good herd, and at least 4-5 tags..

At the risk of being flamed, any 1 1/2 is fine by me; buck or doe. That stated, I've passed on probably 40 or more small bucks in the past 10 or 15 years, but have chewed on several does in that time. In my opinion the machismo of ONLY shooting huge bucks has probably done more to keep young people from embracing hunting than the Democrat philosophy.

While I generally agree with that, you may be painting with a pretty broad brush there.

Some don't do it for the machismo. There's plenty of folks that get to the point in their hunting careers where it's about the challenge. And a mature deer is like a totally different breed of deer.

We should all do whatever makes our own socks go up and down. (unless you're from MN and target button bucks.. )

There's nothing macho about it for me, and I make no apologies for my "go big or go home" policy. I've shot enough game in my life. If I want meat, I'll go buy a side of beef. I could be talked into an oryx/gemsbok/eland meat hunt though.......

---- This ----

Location - location - location !. Challenge - challenge - challenge !

Mass got this one killed last Friday

And a big Cheater didn't hurt.

fishnut - Great buck!!

GOOD LORD FISHNUT!. I grew up in a hunting environment where shooting does was not done much, and shooting a small buck almost as good as shooting a big one, then when i killed my first buck, a half rack' basket @13 I thought, killing this deer was easy, he was stupid, i know there are big bucks here, how cool would it be to outsmart one. Thats not to say i havent killed any deer since that day 19 years ago that wern't, but ive shot a lot more mature deer than anyone I grew up hunting with. Shooting small deer was empty for me, chasing big deer, even when i dont kill (every other year usually) is what keeps me addicted

Beauty!

What I try to shoot in the way of deer depends entirely on where I am,what I might bump into,and what is offered up.

I killed the Dink-A-Thon contender last year because it was seasons end, and I was hungry,having been outfoxed by a toad up in Maine earlier in the season.

Such is hunting.

You probably saved that poor buck from dying of a neck ache!

I will admit. It was a great tag. We looked over some nice bucks. Some would have outscored this one. Mass is definitely my weakness and this one had it in spades! First mass measurement is just over 8" on the one side.

Something like onto this! Buck I took last season in Kansas.

Kansas buck taken in Dec 2014 by Rick Mulhern, on Flickr

I don't really have a lot of choice in my area. Stickers and trash, do get my vote....

This would get my attention!!!

Good mass with wide main beams looks best to my eye. I don't care as much about the tall bushel basket type racks.

If I get an antlered license, just the presence of antlers gets me.
Why do I see the wide 5X5's when the state sends me an antlerless license, but only forks when I get an antlered license?

Wow!

Saw a beautiful buck while elk hunting in Idaho one year. From the side his rack looked like a muley, from the front it looked like a whitetail. Pretty sure he was a M-W cross, but spent a few minutes just watching him.

The ones where some back straps and inner tenderloins are attached......

Then I would have gone out to meet him until he expired from a bullet wound.

I'm a sucker for mass, haven't gotten many with much. This one did it for me two years ago.

On Michigan public land I have a weakness for anything with at least one 3" point on at least one side.

Although w/ new antler restrictions it isn't that simple anymore which I hope means we won't need ringman-sized Hubel Space Telescopes atop our rifles to know if deer are legal before long, at lest in some areas.