LAST EDITED ON Aug-10-11 AT 01:52PM (MST)[p]My guess would be three to five, about the same as last season. I only have seen and heard of a few from last year, there could have been a few more.
Although there is lots of feed now, it was not there in the spring/early summer when the bulls started growing their horns. It was a very very late winter and IMHO opinion did not help with antler growth since the grass was slower coming back this year. It was also a hard winter for most of the state due to the cold and deep snowpack.
I am not a scientist or biologist, but if everything holds true on calfs dropping at the same time each year and antlers growing during the same growing period, the spring did not help since it would mean less food to eat during critical early development.
If I remember right, some of the best producing years in antler size were the drought years of 05-08. Granted, there was less tags back then, but there seemed to be a lot of giant bulls that hit the dirt. I feel that mild winters and early springs are more important than lots of grass later in the summer after bulls have done most of their development. Just my .02...