KSHunter, in my humble opinion, having lived in both places (North and South) as well as having taken deer in both places, I feel that some of it is genetics. In order for deer to survive harsh winters, they need to put on a lot of fat compared to their southern cousins. In order to carry the extra weight of the muscle and fat, they need bigger frames (bones if you will). You are right, the amount of food in the south is probably more and you also have more variety year round too. The other thing I noticed too when I hunted in southeastern Va with dogs is the deer never get a chance to get old and big. There are a lot of deer there but they take a lot of them out each year too. I think you are right that after several years of being transplanted, they would tend to take on the traits of the local southern population as they would be the majority anyway. Another interesting thing I noticed in Va. is the south eastern-most part of Va (such as Suffolk,Smithfield, etc) where the grow peanut crops, soy and corn, the quality and quantity of the protein in those food crops is very high and they tend to grow really, really large racks in a short amount of time compared to deer even just a little more West of them that don't grow peanut crops.