have hunted the sandhills just across in Texas for >15 years, we have killed all of our best bucks 200"-210" on the driest years like this year - we've killed probably 50 bucks over 180 and all of our top ones(>200") were killed on years of 3-7 inches of rain - there have been several years where we had 18-30" of rain and we noticed the bucks that scored 185" the year before actually dropped to 170" class on the wet years - we have had as much as 250,000 acres leased up on the Texas side and have hundreds of photos,sheds,etc...from 1996 until recent and everything points to better bucks on the dry years - on dry years,nothing grows but the shinnery - which is what makes these deer so big - its the leaves, not the acorns, they only produce acorns about every 4-5 years and they aren't ready till usually mid to late august - too late to make a difference on antler growth - on wet years, there is tons of weeds,etc... that the deer eat and prefer over the shinnery leaves but are not as nutritious - therefore smaller racks. it goes against everywhere else in the country - but the sand dunes are a unique piece of country - so don't worry about the lack of rainfall in the dunes - its probably a blessing for the bucks - have personally killed a 208", 205", 202",201",199 7/8", 197" all during extremely dry years, have killed only one 190" buck during wet years - all of the others are 178" - 185" during the "wet" years. i've got stacks of pics and sheds of the same bucks on dry years vs. wet years and the differences are amazing. dry years by far produce the best racks in the dunes
