Cactus or Stag buck question

ridgetops · Oct 12, 2011

For those of you who have seen or watched this type of buck several years in a row. Do they tend to really slow down in growth after 3 or 4 years? The one I have been watching really has and a 2nd one I've seen grew a lot from last year and he's a younger deer. I'm wondering if there's a good chance he may slow down his grown as he gets older too. What have you guys seen?

There's always next year

Gator · Oct 12, 2011

As they get older I believe they start slowing down on what they put into their antlers and just start putting on more weight. Kind of like old men once they quit chasing the women they start getting fat. LOL

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littlebighorn · Oct 12, 2011

Hey Koby,
Not sure I like the old man comment... it's too close to home! ha. I don't have any experience with cactus bucks, but it seems to me that since they don't drop their antlers from year to year, all they can do is gradually get bigger and add more points. I am sure that growth probably slows considerably once they are mature. (at 4 or 5 years old so). Anyway, put one on the ground and show us some pics!
Happy Hunting

swbuckmaster · Oct 12, 2011

Ive never seen them 2 years in a row!

I would really like to know what happened to the one that was north of Brigham city a few miles across from the pig farm. There was a ton of people watching it and I never did see a photo of it killed. This leads me to believe it might have been poached.

Sniper1 · Oct 12, 2011

>Ive never seen them 2 years
>in a row!
>
>I would really like to know
>what happened to the one
>that was north of Brigham
>city a few miles across
>from the pig farm. There
>was a ton of people
>watching it and I never
>did see a photo of
>it killed. This leads me
>to believe it might have
>been poached.
>
>

That deer was a PIG and half. I thought i heard of him getting killed last year but i could be wrong. It was fun to go up and watch him at times. There was actually two of them at one point.

dleonard3 · Oct 12, 2011

I've seen a few stags over the years, but they all seemed to have been younger bucks. They grew big spikes with lots of smaller points around the bases and no real structure. The antler they grow is soft and spongy with some harder bone here and there. As the seasons changed, the growth would stop or slow down, and they would occasionally break a point off. It seemed like any new growth would originate from the bases. I'm not sure how this would work on a mature buck that turned stag either from injury or illness.

muley77 · Oct 13, 2011

Here is a really great link that will tell you lots of cool info about cactus "Bucks" I put that in quotations because a couple of years ago I saw one in the bountiful area that was really unique- I can't tell you how many points it had because there were so many, It was in the same area most of the time and I would watch it and to my surprise one day I saw a fawn with it and was blown away when it started to nurse the fawn. I did some research and asked some questions and sure enough in rare cases a cactus "deer" can be a female- I think that is why the female deer hunts are called "antlerless" hunts because if they didn't clarify it I guess someone could technically shoot one of these types of deer and be perfectly legal. Although I am not sure how you would identify it in the field until after you shot it. I am just speculating. I have not seen this deer since, don't know what happened to it. But this link has some great info on cactus bucks

http://www.kingsoutdoorworld.com/feature/cactus-bucks.shtml

ridgetops · Oct 13, 2011

That was a good read Muley77. I'm surprised they didn't mention anything about birth defects or retarded genectics. I would think that many bucks are born that way instead of being injured.That was interesting about the little points freezing and breaking off. The buck I've been hunting looked like he lost some of his little points around the bases from last year but has grown larger around the bases.

There's always next year

nfh · Oct 13, 2011

4 years in a row i have found a whitetail buck he has stayed a 150 class frame, but every year he gets a little thicker. never seen the buck on hoof but when i find his sheds they are pure white and have lots of velvet on them, so im assuming he is a stag

caddishatch · Oct 14, 2011

stags dont shed their antlers

Bushmen · Oct 18, 2011

actually. they are kind of a mystery. MOST of them never shed their antlers. but there are some cases when you can find sheds off of these bucks. there are some full velvet sheds that have been picked up. cant be 100% sure that they were off of a cactus buck but more than likely it is

huntinfanatic · Oct 18, 2011

I live in southern utah and have seen many of these strange bucks. I have personally seen 3 that have been killed by hunters, all 3 had one thing in common which was that they had some type of testicular issue. One of them simply just didnt have any, one of them had nads the size of peas and one only had one marble sized nut. From my personal experience as they get older they mainly just pickup mass around their bases and maybe a few extras kickers. I went out on the paunsaugunt this last weekend and actually got a few photos of a cactus buck. As you can see he has some HUGE bases.

Bushmen · Oct 19, 2011

i am from southern utah also i have killed on of these bucks and it had 4 eye guards on each side my dad killed one with huge bases and neither of them had any gonads. i have also gotten multiple pictures of different cactus bucks on my trail cams