antler growth

[kansaswiderack]

I always heard that lots of rain equaled larger antlers. I got a picture off my trail camera of a big buck that I photoed last year & appears to be a reasonably young. While we have had all time record rainfalls in the area this year, He appears to be virtually the same as last year. Any thoughts?

[Austin/WI]

Sounds like an interesting theory, but I doubt it would hold true except for areas where therecould extreme differences in rainfall between a coupleyears (Southwest, parts of TX maybe)

[mj469]

I have also heard the theory about more rainfall equals better antler growth. And what I heard is it is actually a product of how well the crops did. If there is a lot of rainfall, the crops do really well, and the deer that feed on those crops get more nutrients and minerals from the ground as the rain makes these things come out in the crops. So to a certain extent, I believe this theory. Now I don't think that a lot of rainfall is going to take an average buck and make it a giant, but good rainfall at least give the deer a good chance to grow better.

[Dopler]

Could have been a different buck maybe? Last Sunday night I was in my stand and a 125 inch 3.5 year oldeight point came outaround 3 p.m.he had super long tines,13" g-2's, 11" g3's and only a 14" spread. I let him go and an hour later, an almostidentical buck came out but it was a 2.5year old, same exact spread, same shape,less mass, with 10" g-2's and 9" g-3's. If I got these bucks on trail cams in different years, I'm sure I'd think they were the same one.Genetics and rack style can becommoncharacterisics to an area, especially for racks like basic youngbucks that don't have a ton of character yet. I didn't get a picture of the 3.5 year old as he appeared out of nowhere andit was so early, I hadn't pulled my camera out yetbut the 2.5 year old I did as he was feeding in the beans adjacent to my stand. (It's not a great pic as it was getting dark.)
[/align]

[wis_rifle_hunter]

we got to much rain here this spring which made it flood. we lost pretty much all our crops and i havent seen many deer. so our bucks that we've seen dont have very big racks

[Schultzy]

There's many things that account for antler growth other then having a decent rain year.