Sorry, I'm a bit late in posting this. These photos were taken April 5th, 2005. My question is what can be expected as far as antler growth/development for this upcomming season with both antlers still attached this late in the spring. Will he drop and regrow but with a smaller and less developed rack, or make up quickly for lost time?
Anybody have any ideas???







Zac

Thats just a baby. He has only one way to grow. Bigger

Anything can happen. He may have gotten injured which will hinder growth. Most likely he will get bigger, but you may also never see him again.

You can take guesses based on past sightings of that particular deer , but there really is no accurate way to predict how a rack will turn out . Age , diet , genetics , injuries , all can affect the outcome . And as Psychowolverine pointed out you may never see him again anyway .

Sorry, I really wasn't very clear with my question. I just mean in general, when a deer loses his antlers that late does it affect the next years growth? I have heard that injury as well as does in second rut will cause bucks to keep their antlers longer.

Zac, its been my experience that early shedding/early growing bucks can get a great head start growing antlers from May through to hard antler. But, having said this, I havent seen where late shedding bucks get behind. They just seem to grow later into the summer when others have already finished up. I had a decent buck shed both antlers on April 11th three yrs ago. That fall he had his biggest antlers to date. So, to answer you, it didnt seem to matter that he was running behind to begin the spring.

Thanks Bill, good to know... A couple years from now he might be a taker!!

I lightened the pics a little for you a little. It may be my monitor, but they were too dark for me to see the buck. Hope you don't mind.

Yup, much easier to see... Thanks arkansan

I would say you could expect him to weigh less next year ......AFTER you field dress him ! ;&gt)


Doc