Goliath is dead!
 

I saw an article on this in the paper, but couldn't cut it out. I spilled coffee on it by accident. But Goliath is dead. He was 7 1/2 years old and he did get to spread his genes before he died. I also understand that he was stolen from a deer farm in PA in 1999 and later returned. They were supposed to do a surgery on the corpse or something to determine the cause of death. I suppose it was natural causes. Anybody know anything else?

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

I understand they are prosecuting the guy who supposedly bought him. It looks like he may have been the theif and not an innocent victim. If he did it, I hope he gets more than a slap on the wrist. he was gone from his rightful owners for 5 years.

Wonder how many of Goliaths progeny are out there?

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

I haven't heard that, but here is some info on goliath...

http://www.doublediamonddeerranch.com/goliath/
http://www.doublediamonddeerranch.co...iath-found.cfm

I encourage anybody that visits North Western Pennsylvania, to visit Double Diamond Deer ranch. They have some amazing animals there!

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

They do have some amazing deer.
For anyone who hasn't been there, it's worth a trip. Something I find especially interesting is that they have each deers sheds from 1.5 to the present and the best bucks were very ordinary at 1.5 and many were not AR legal. They give a good lesson in the value of letting bucks age a bit.

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

i go to a preserve the wilderness lodge and the man who owns it andy is the one who found the deer when it was stollen the deer was just under 15 miles from his home. andy would buy genes for his deer at other places but he just started to raise deer that are over the 200 bc. if you guys hunt preserves for rams hogs or anything the wilderness is the place to go great guy and the prices aren't bad. and just so you know they did file suite against the guiy who stoll the deer just going threw court now.

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

they are livestock, just like pen raised anything. Take a young bull an let him get 5 yrs old sure he's going to look like the bull of the woods. But he is not living in the wild is he? neither are those deer at Dbl Diamond are they, they are being feed every vitaman the best feed etc to promote antler growth. Another poor example of a horn hunter's logic "just let them get past 1.5 yrs old so I can have a MONSTER WHITETAIL BUCK to hunt for the club" yuk it's starting to stink around here!

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

That is correct. Deer at double diamond ARE fed everything they need to grow good racks and body size right from birth and STILL many of em aren't AR legal at 1.5.

Just proves my point that age is a key factor in antler development

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

I say it proves my point...any buck that isn't AR legal @1.5 should have been culled as a BB. Why feed more males in any population than what is needed for breeding? A horn hunter will say " So I can get into some book", a real sportsman will say keep 1 male for every 35 females and eat the rest at .5 yrs

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

Now that makes alot of sense.

The FACT is that these deer all grow up to be nice bucks if left to live another year or 2 past 1.5.

Enough already with the button bucks. You've already admitted that you don't shoot them. You don't seem to be ruffling any feathers with it. Just making yourself look silly for thinking that way.

RE: Goliath is dead!
 

902 actually it does make alot of sense. Think about it. How many bulls do you see in a dairy herd? How many roosters in a chicken coop?How many boars do you see in a hog barn?
Also not all deer grow up to be nice bucks by 2.5-3.5, no more than all foals become Belmont Stakes winners
A nice buck is whatever someone thinks is a nice buck to them. I've killed some 6pts that weren't what some guys call nice. I've also seen some spikes that I thought were very nice..like beauty it is in the eye of the beholder...a BB to me is the most beautiful when he is skinned out and cut up. What more beautiful backstraps could anyone want???????