Deerofthesouthwest

antlerradar

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Deerofthesouthwest

I went back and read all of your posts on the antler genetics thread. Much of what you said I agree with. I agree that game departments should not try to manage for trophy bucks at the expense of opportunity for the average hunter. This however is a two edged sword. More opportunity invarably leads to fewer big bucks. Any time you reduce the quanity of something the price goes up. This and the ever increasing demand for big bucks has made even average bucks very valuable. As the price goes up an ever increasing number of land managers will try to supply the quality bucks and hunting experience. What I am trying to say is that although I don't think game departments should try to implement a quality deer managment program it may be implemented regardless. Instead of the state regulating the program the quality will be regulated by the amount you are willing to pay. This may be more of a poison pill to our hunting heritage. One only has to look at my home state of Montana. Montana has more opportunity than just about anywhere. A long season and a OTC tag for residents. There is still "free" quality hunting to be found, but it gets harder and more costly to find every year. The average person is finding out that there is very little quality hunting available at all. In states without large amounts of public land average people could be squeezed out.

Now to where I think you could be wrong. You believe that bucks grow their best antlers at 5 to 7 year of age and then they tend to grow heavier antlers with fewer and shorter points. I have over the last 25 years been fortunate to have been able to observe about 3 dozen different bucks that have reached an age approaching 10 years. Many of them I have kept track of most of their life. Several of them I have found most of their shed antlers. I have found that almost none of them have grown antlers that would support the growth pattern that you decribe. Instead there is rapid growth up to about age 6 then growth levels off for about 3 to 5 years. Then bucks have one and on rare occasions two years of decline and then they die. Often there is a small decline at an age of about 7 but antler growth bounces back the next year. Some bucks grow their best antlers in the year before they decline. This is often at an age of 10 years or more. I know it is conventional wisdom that bucks peak at 6 or 7 and then start to decline, but I can find little evidence to support this.

Antlerradar
 

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