double browtine
Well-Known Member
I think that buck is at least 6.5. You'll be lucky to see him during daylight hours unless it's during peak breeding time. I bet he hides in the thickest area possible
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BIG 5pt! Thoughts on age?
- Thread starter bwgarrett3
- Start date
Id rather shoot that than a 150. Because that 150 gonna make more 150's that rig gonna make more 5 pointers. Id rather have 150 genetics passed on
bwgarrett3
Well-Known Member
He is #1 on my "hit list" for that reason. I know some on here love to hear the term "hit list". haha
BSK
Well-Known Member
Except for the fact antler genetics don't work that way. Most of the shape/size of a buck's antlers comes from his mother's genetics, not his father's.
bwgarrett3
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
Many male-expressed traits are only carried through the female line. Male pattern baldness in humans is a prime example.
I'm not saying bucks don't contribute to their sons' antlers in some way, but at the deer pens at UGA, where they have many, many years of knowing the parentage of each deer at the facility, if you look at all of the male offspring of a single buck, none of his sons will have antlers that look alike, or look like the father. Each one is a different shape and/or size. However, if you look at all of the sons of a particular doe, they will all be the same basic shape and framework. The mother is the one who controls the basic frame and shape of her sons' antlers. That is why the same shape rack will keep popping up year after year on the same property. All of does in a family unit of females are related on their female side. Yet most will have different fathers. That family group of does will produce males with similar-shaped antlers in the same location year after year. However, many males disperse from their birth range and take their genetics with them.
bwgarrett3
Well-Known Member
Interesting thought!
Very old past 5.5 . Hope you get him .
deerhunter10
Well-Known Member
BSK
Well-Known Member
Again, many traits that only males can express are carried on the X chromosome. Bucks can pass an X chromosome to a daughter, but they cannot pass an X chromosome to a son. Genetics are far, FAR more complicated than our High School (and even college) biology classes made it sound. So many people think DNA carries a code for all our physical features. This is not correct. It is the sequence of which genes are turned on or turned off - and their exact timing of turning off and on - when we are developing as a fetus that determines how a physical feature appears. In addition, nutrition al intake and over-all health are a major player in antler development each year.this is good stuff. So how do those does get the genetic traits to begin with? And why do Texas deer farms buy "stud" bucks to start a farm? Genetics take two.
A couple of prime examples: Trophy bucks from Michigan were brought to a research facility in Louisiana. These bucks had massive antlers in their home environment. However, once they were moved to a hot, humid environment in the South, they never again grew large antlers, and actually underperformed the local bucks antler-wise. They were not adapted to that environment, and it seriously affected their antler growth each year.
As for the timing of genes turning on and off, did you know that if you stop just one gene in a chicken from operating properly (its job is to turn on and off for a brief period during fetal development) the chicken will come out with lizard scales instead of feathers. That gene is one of the added genes that turned dinosaurs into birds. Take out that one gene and their appearance reverts to a dinosaur.
While studying two different species of finch on the Galapagos Islands, researchers couldn't understand how two different species could develop and stay separate species when trapped on an island in such close association. The two species were identical except for very different beaks - one a short beak and one a long beak. After DNA sequencing the two species it turned out they weren't two species. They were the same species. However, if one gene in delayed in turning on during fetal development by just 24 hours, the bird will grow a long beak. If properly timed, a short beak. No differences in DNA, just gene expression timing.
As for ranches buying breeder bucks, there's a sucker born every minute.
Actually, I don't want to sound like I'm saying bucks provide nothing in the way of antler genetics to their sons. They do. But it is far less critical than what the mother provides.
Regardless of how it ends up there A genetic component of any one buck will be expressed in his offspring. Genetics is as complicated as you want to make it. I agree it goes into crazy detail, but you can't say a buck breeding a doe doesn't pass on his genetics. If you eliminate him now you don't see his genetics in the future end of story.
BSK
Well-Known Member
True. A dead buck can't pass on his genetics. However, it's also true genetics are complicated beyond 99.999% of people's imagination. And nobody fully knows how it works. We are the most studied animal on the plant by far, and we currently only know what a tiny fraction of our DNA sequence does.
