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Antler growth this year

megalomaniac said:
Personally, I think a better assessment of antler growth from year to year is looking at how much the 3.5yos added to 4.5 and the 4 5yos that survived added to 5.5 this year.

Prob selection bias, because the 2.5s and 3.5s aren't targets for us ..

But for sure, this year's 4.5 and 5.5yos didn't add nearly much this year from last year as compared to years past. Pretty disappointing actually. None went downhill, but none made significant jumps from last year like we often see...
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VERY interesting.
 
megalomaniac said:
Personally, I think a better assessment of antler growth from year to year is looking at how much the 3.5yos added to 4.5 and the 4 5yos that survived added to 5.5 this year.

Prob selection bias, because the 2.5s and 3.5s aren't targets for us ..

But for sure, this year's 4.5 and 5.5yos didn't add nearly much this year from last year as compared to years past. Pretty disappointing actually. None went downhill, but none made significant jumps from last year like we often see...
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This for our mature bucks exactly
But we have an explosion of 2 year old 100 inch 8's
 
Average last year below average. We do have a deer that'll go high 140s. Still don't have all my cameras out we have a couple farms that don't hold a ton of deer on the in the summer. Will get them out this weekend and see where these farms are at. Overall for thr drought and all I'm actually a little surprised. Good spring and just that one week of hard cold and a surplus of acorns last year probably helped with getting back to normal. I haven't seen above normal in several years.
 
deerhunter10 said:
Average last year below average. We do have a deer that'll go high 140s. Still don't have all my cameras out we have a couple farms that don't hold a ton of deer on the in the summer. Will get them out this weekend and see where these farms are at. Overall for thr drought and all I'm actually a little surprised. Good spring and just that one week of hard cold and a surplus of acorns last year probably helped with getting back to normal. I haven't seen above normal in several years.
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Agreed.
 
Last year was unbelievable for antler growth in my area. This year isn't as good but still decent. The one deer in particular that showed the most growth I've saw so far was the 125-130 8 I shot in velvet. I've watched him for the prior 2 years and he puts on 15-20 inches a year. But his mass in particular was what caught my attention. He's always been wide but I'm suprised how thick he became. Obviously velvet makes him look 2times as thick but from watching him early the last couple summers till the time I got him in August it was an obvious difference. Ive also got another deer I've been watching that I believe has jumped 20 inches as a 5.5 y/o. I don't want to exaggerate and be let down so I'll be conservative and say he'll be low 140s. Which is almost unheard of in my area. He's not got any wider but has gained 2 points and like the other has put on crazy mass. These are mountain deer without any crops or plots. I can say for sure low stress has helped these deer more than anything else. I've yet to see 2 more that I got really excited about last year and I hope the have made the jump these others have. I feel like it's going to be a good year.
 
TheLBLman said:
Is it possible this is more the result of hunters' high-grading buck harvests, even at the yearling buck level?
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We certainly see some effects of high-grading in my area, but hunter harvest continues to decline year after year. I honestly think the poor antler development we are seeing is due to three summers in a row of fairly severe drought.
 
TheLBLman said:
Is it possible this is more the result of hunters' high-grading buck harvests, even at the yearling buck level?
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Possible for sure. Bsk said it we haven't had a great spring and summer in a while. And that what I assume it takes to get those above average years. I'm hearing reports that the midwest guys are very excited for this year. But they had a great spring and wet summer.
 
I'm still not seeing any difference. What I am seeing is an "off" year for older bucks in terms of them being around. Most years I have a fairly typical age pyramid but every 3yrs or so I'll have a year where it's tilted heavily toward one age group. Last year I was lucky & had a bunch of older bucks. This year I've got a bunch of yearlings & 2yr olds. Not entirely sure why that happens but it's a cycle I've noticed.

The only abnormal thing I've noticed about antler growth is that my yearlings are mostly forks or small rack bucks. Very few spikes. And I've got a lion's share of 2yr old 8 pointers. None of either age are particularly exceptional. Just a lot of them that are in the upper half for their age, and few that are in the lower half.
 
I have only identified a handful of deer from last year that appear to have increased their rack size. The ones I'm referencing ranged from 2.5-5.5 years old. Average increase on the 2.5 to 3.5 year old deer appear to be a gain of 15-20" with only one deer, so far, that made it as a 4.5 who is now a 5.5 and the antler expression didn't seem to increase that much. In fact, the deer broke off a distinct atypical point in velvet so he may not score as much as what he would have last year but the body weights along with rack size didnt decrease outside of the one atypical point for bucks. Still waiting for a few other bucks we didnt harvest as 3.5 or 4.5 year olds to show up over the next few weeks. I hunt in an area where half our property is hardwood riverbottom and the other half is row crops (corn/beans). Oak species vary as you would expect.
The only thing I've noticed is a decrease is body weight for a handful of the does, which most likely is due to the fawn demand. The fawns I've seen look to be healthy and comparable size to their first year deer counterparts.
 
BSK said:
Interesting. Very different than what I'm seeing. I'm monitoring 5 properties from the KY Lake region to the Cumberland Plateau. All are seeing fairly significant declines in antler development per age-class this year. Most notable is the decline in antler growth on 2 1/2s (lots of 2 1/2s with 6 or fewer points), and 3 1/2s (very few 3 1/2s with 9 or more points). I'm also see very few top-end bucks.

This has me totally perplexed. In hardwood areas, usually the previous year's acorn crop is very indicative of antler growth the following summer. As the theory goes, poor food resources in fall and winter produce below average antler growth the next summer. Great food sources fall and winter produce above average antler growth the following summer.

Yet on all the monitored properties, following the terrible drought and total acorn failure of 2022, experienced above average antler growth the summer of 2023, but after the bumper acorn crop of 2023, antler development is down the summer of 2024.
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100% and I'm next to the plateau. I don't know if my entire county is affected the same way or not as my farm. Most of my friends hunt out of state or other counties. Although I have saw maybe double the fawns I usually see. Do you have any insight as to what would cause that? Just more does on the farm this year?
 
gobblesandgrunts said:
100% and I'm next to the plateau. I don't know if my entire county is affected the same way or not as my farm. Most of my friends hunt out of state or other counties. Although I have saw maybe double the fawns I usually see. Do you have any insight as to what would cause that? Just more does on the farm this year?
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The big acorn crop last year. Does went into winter in excellent shape, which helped produce strong healthy, newborn fawns in spring.
 
I'm not seeing the jump in antler size, particularly in mass, that I expected this year. Historically after a bumper acorn crop we have a solid increase in growth. Unfortunately our bucks are just average, at best, from what I've seen.
 
LenS said:
I'm not seeing the jump in antler size, particularly in mass, that I expected this year. Historically after a bumper acorn crop we have a solid increase in growth. Unfortunately our bucks are just average, at best, from what I've seen.
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That's what I'm seeing - average to slightly below average.
 

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