I have a pretty straight forward question. On my land in Iowa there have been two bucks taken this fall. Both were almost identically racked, each one nine points. The racks were certainly not huge, like a few deer that inhabit the area. I understand that these two deer were very likely the same age, but my question is: Were these two deer ever going to get bigger racks or were they as big as they would ever get due to genetics, habitat, etc. ?
The basic question I have to ask myself is should I have let the deer walk and grow next year or was it good to remove them from the local gene pool?

Thanks for any and all help
Bill the Dog

I would say that they will grow up, but depending on the food they have during the winter months and early next spring will have the most effect on how much bigger they will get. As far as letting them go I think you did well because if you hadn't have let them go you would never have known if they would have gotten any bigger. Good luck next year on your deer quality!

From my experiance, its absolutley amazing how quickly and how big those bucks racks get if you don't shoot them. Let them grow up! the past three years we've let our bucks pass unless they're tru trophies. Its was hard! Now were seeing some true monsters. Let them get to 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 years and you'ff have some monsters. Especially in Iowa!

Good Luck!

It would be hard to say if the deer you refer to would get any better antlers, because you did not state how old they were when you shot them.

Deer will usually reach peak antler growth in no mre than 6.5 years.

Factors of age, environment, nutrition, and even social posistion have direct effects on antler development.

So, its really hard to say.

If your in Iowa you need to let them deer grow! Look at the Albia buck[:@] lol.
I don't know that you could determine that unless you had seen their daddy...

Your in Iowa let those deer grow up! I mean look at the albia buck. lol.
It is hard to say what would have happened unless you had seen the daddy...

6.5 sounds right for peak trophy size.

I remember watching a Realtree show where they showed a 177 and 189 class buck that was shoulder mounted and stated they were both 6.5 years old. He then proceeded to show the sheds they had collected from both of these bucks at 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 years old. Each set was a shooter but each year they gained at least 15 total points. I'm not a trophy hunters but he did get his point across about passing them up until at least 5.