I got a shot a buck this year and missed, but anyway it was a 4pt on one side a long spike on the other. I was wondering what causes this and will he be the same this year?

My guess is he was injured earlier in the year which caused the antler deformation, and im assuming it should be normal next year but you never know. Correct me if im wrong.

Could be injury, could be genetics. If injury it should be better this year. If it just has messed up genes then it will be the same. A lot of times when they get wounded an antler will grow downwards.

I agree with the nuge15 and would say that most of the time when injured they grow downwards too. I would say that this is probably genetic and next year it will be similar. Probably larger but similar.

It could be an antler injury, injury to one side of the animals body, or malnutrition, or genetics.