Went hunting lastnight and had 6 young bucks pass by my stand. The first two bucks were good looking, they are potential monsters someday. The next buck to come by had a really nice left side, he already had four or five inch long brow tines perfectly matched and a main frame eight on the left side. On the right side, besides that matching brow, was just a single tine sticking straight up with a couple kickers. My thoughts were to harvest the deer just to get rid of those bad genes, but then I thought that maybe he had just injured it during growth or maybe was injured when he was a yearling. Well I passed on the deer and let him live another day, hoping that it was just an injury during antler growth. Did I make the right decision or is the deer genetically messed up?

I think it would have been fine to take him. I got one the opening weekend of bow and it looked like it had been hit by a car somewhere down the line causeing the right side to grow abnormal. I harvested it just to be sure. And I feel it was a good thing.

I say you are safe both ways...

I also had a deer last year that had 4 healthy points on one side, and a straight antler on the other. Our general rule of thumb on the property that I hunt that if the buck isn't a wall hanger, we should let it go. It's my buds property, so he sets the rules, and I follow them.

I told him about the deer. Same questions...was it an accident, or genetics? We decided that if we see it next year, it is no accident, and we will take him out.

My feeling is that not all beautiful antlers are symmetrical mirrored beams. I like the interesting twisted deformed antlers as well. Think about him as amature 4 1/2 year old buck with that type of rack. Let him walk until he's big enough to put on the wall.

Beauty is with the beholder