Old buck going down hill?

The first buck. I found all of his antlers and him dead in a mile and a half of river bottom. I saw him many times over the his life. Even watched him with one antler on his head one Jan. 9th. That was the only one of the big antlers I couldn't find. It is likely He died of EHD.

The second whitetail: I found all but the first set of his antlers in a 40 acre bend in the river. The other set was on the other side of the river. I also found a smaller set about a mile away but I parted with them before I found the bigger antlers. Wish I would have kept them. I saw him often when he was young but only once or twice when he was older. He was a smart old buck. A neighbor found him dead about a mile and a half from were I found the antlers. I haven't been able to talk him out of the head. Likely died of EHD.

The mule deer: I never saw the mule deer. The year I graduated from high school (1984)I took the fall off to work and hunt. I had a goal of taking a big mule deer. The season was all most over and I still had a tag. My father suggested I ask a friend of his (Bill) to hunt his ranch. Back in those days you could get permission by just asking. The first day I hunted Bill's ranch I found the big antler (2nd from the left bottom row) before the sun was up. At the time it was the biggest antler I had ever found and better yet it had been dropped that spring. I hunted the ranch a few more times but never found the other antler or saw the buck. I learned a few years later that the landowner on a neighboring ranch had been hunting a giant buck in the mid 80s a few miles away. He never got the buck and it is likely that was the buck I found the antlers from.

I asked Bill if I could come back and look for the other antler and he gave me the ok. In 85 I found the set in the top left and one of the antlers from the top middle set. I got the match from Bill's antler pile. I could not find the match to the big antler I found first. I would show the antlers to Bill and talk ranching over a beer. We became good friends.
In 86 I had other priority's and didn't look for the other antler.
I was back in the summer of 87 and I found the what I thought was the match to the big antler about 1/2 mile away. (Bottom row second from the right) It was right on top of a ridge and I had been there in 85. I figured I had missed it.
In 1990 I found the big antler(bottom row middle) about a mile and a half from were I found the others. Spent a lot of time looking for the match but couldn't turn it up.
In 1997 I was walking back to my pickup when something told me to walk through thick patch of juniper. In the middle of the juniper was the match to the first antler I had found. It was only three hundred yards from the first and I had been walking by it for 13 years.
That meant that I was missing the match to the antler I found in 87. I started looking for it and found it and the smaller antler on the top. Unfortunately several of the points are chewed off.
About 15 years ago I was having a beer with Bill when I noticed the antlers hanging on the wall. I asked Bill where he got the antlers. He told me he found the buck dead just before Christmas in the mid 80 (1986 is written on the back) and that they had been in his office but he had recently moved them to the living room. I told Bill it was the buck I had found all of the antlers from and Bill said "when I die I will give you the antlers". I am glad to have the antlers but miss sure miss a good friend.

Antlerradar

This is another buck I found several years of antlers from in Idaho in the early 90's
Never saw the buck. The antler with the big drop is the freshest and the second smallest of the antlers. I think I found the buck dead but shed off not far from the drop antler. The big set on the bottom is the second freshest. They are the best set I have ever found. Right at 200 gross typical and 17 inches of nontypical.

Antlerradar

Great stuff. Thanks for this and your other posts Antlerradar.... looking forward to more.

Fascinating story Antlerradar.

Unreal. Thanks for sharing

Just to see if I am all good -to-go on this site... We share a similar passion antlerradar, it would be interesting to burn up some firewood and chat. Here is a 3 year run by a big one that obviously liked to scrap during the rut, he always busted something! Our max age seems to be right about 12 under perfect conditions here, very few reach it as we print WAY too many tags, and sooner than later their luck runs out via a high speed chunk of lead.

But for the skillful few they DO NOT go downhill to any substantial amount. They do get more stickers... They do lose point length... They do tend to top out on mass. Many no matter their age never exceed 160's.

I have a bunch of examples but they are buried in the pile. These are old pics I have on file of a few examples from over the years. It never ceases to amaze me how any get to be 10 plus given the life they live with such reckless abandon without all the predators after their meat.

Just the sheer number of high speed fence jumpings over a twelve yr span is incredible that they don't catch a toe or split a pelvis or twist an ankle (and some do).



Here is one named 'stickers", approx. 12 yrs when he didn't make a winter based on my buddies track record of sheds starting at about 140's (3-4???) two yrs totally missing from the line but then he would show up right where he was supposed to. I gave the dead head to him to complete his stickers shrine he has going. He never budged from this size for about 7 yrs give or take 6-8 inches.


If there are some guys on here that find this stuff interesting as I do I will add some more when I have more time. In addition to some live deer pics portraying the same type of stuff.

To expand on your statement, I've also witnessed that the older they get the more stickers they seem to acquire, and that point length decreases, but around here mass just seems to keep piling on. Way to many tags here also, and trucks with rifles sticking out the windows. Most bucks fall before they see 2.5yrs of age.

squirrel said:

Just to see if I am all good -to-go on this site... We share a similar passion antlerradar, it would be interesting to burn up some firewood and chat. Here is a 3 year run by a big one that obviously liked to scrap during the rut, he always busted something! Our max age seems to be right about 12 under perfect conditions here, very few reach it as we print WAY too many tags, and sooner than later their luck runs out via a high speed chunk of lead.

But for the skillful few they DO NOT go downhill to any substantial amount. They do get more stickers... They do lose point length... They do tend to top out on mass. Many no matter their age never exceed 160's.



I have a bunch of examples but they are buried in the pile. These are old pics I have on file of a few examples from over the years. It never ceases to amaze me how any get to be 10 plus given the life they live with such reckless abandon without all the predators after their meat.

Just the sheer number of high speed fence jumpings over a twelve yr span is incredible that they don't catch a toe or split a pelvis or twist an ankle (and some do).



Here is one named 'stickers", approx. 12 yrs when he didn't make a winter based on my buddies track record of sheds starting at about 140's (3-4???) two yrs totally missing from the line but then he would show up right where he was supposed to. I gave the dead head to him to complete his stickers shrine he has going. He never budged from this size for about 7 yrs give or take 6-8 inches.


If there are some guys on here that find this stuff interesting as I do I will add some more when I have more time. In addition to some live deer pics portraying the same type of stuff.

Click to expand...

I certainly don't have a decade's worth of antlers from specific animals to draw conclusions on age/antlers, but I'd say I don't know of an older one that got smaller. I have found a few antlers off elk that I've taken, and some that friends have taken (my friends have them now). For deer, I have a few off one particular special buck.

In 1982, I went out on my first deer hunt, alone. I sat on a haystack and shot a doe that came to within 5 yards of me. Was very excited. I drove home and got Dad, and when we drove out to retrieve the deer a huge buck was in the field - if only I had waited longer. I found his antlers the next summer.

The next year I saw the buck a couple times and got him the 3rd day of season. No haystacks that year, so I'd made a blind. I picked up another set of antlers the following summer (2 years old), along with several others that might have been his due to the signature double eyeguard. Back then, nobody bothered with deer antlers.

He was my 1st antlered animal, 1983, and scored over 180 gross (adding in the forked G1s), and netted over 160. Unfortunately, I think I've parted ways with some antlers off deer I've taken back home, after that.

Here's a photo of my daughter holding the set prior to the year I shot him. The set to the right is from the year prior (1981). The others are from him, I think, from before that. I honestly have no clue how old he was, but he sure jumped in size from 82 to 83.

This one jumped from the high 140s to 161 gross in one year.

Great thread. Thanks for the reports. Very interesting.
Huge motivation and commitment to collect so many antlers.
Welcome to Hunt Talk, Squirrel.

Thanks what map, I'm hoping for more writin' and less fightin' type of site??? May be a vain hope but we'll see!

tot... where does the mass keep being added? At >5 yrs it seems that points get shorter but carry mass farther up towards the tip where H-1 to H-4 dimensions are lucky to gain 1/8th. a 1/4 gain is huge for the older bucks barring a palmation or deformity.

I have very little whitetail info to draw from on sheds though I do get to watch some great w/t grow up in KS and NEB from yr-yr, I just never get there to shed hunt.

As promised here is a buck I expect to winter kill soon, but I thought that last year as well when he looked terrible.

Here he is at his prime 2010, I called him "big tops". He hung with "big fronts"



here he is in 13-14 thought he would croak for certain but they are TOUGH!





Here he is this winter, I would love to check his teeth, he has to be pushing our local limit of longevity...

this is a great thread. antler radar, i commend you for the extreme dedication it takes to accomplish a feat such as you have done. great work. i too get tired of hearing the phrase "he was is on his way down" as it seems to be used more and more often. you have proven that for the most part that is a false statement. it seems that the only time antlers regress is in severe weather years, and the year to two leading up to their death

I know it's not natural, but you'd think you might get a baseline of some sort by looking at deer in zoos (but not farms where they might try to max antlers for some reason). If you remove some of the variables, do antlers show any trend over the years?

I tried doing what you guys are doing but nothing lives long enough around here. There are no farms but we have a highway that does two things: 1. It kills deer outright as they cross to drink from the river; and 2. It allows locals to see what's-what on the way to and from work in the morning and evening, planning their fall hunt (or poach) accordingly on the extensive BLM and USFS in the area.

I used a fine tip Sharpie to mark them with year/location info like you see on fossils in museums.

awesome thread antlerradar. This has been one of my favorites to read.

Had a few minutes, and got lucky on their position in the pile so set up this 4 year run of a dandy local fella. Left is younger to right is older animal... Didn't show up last year nor have I seen him this year but he has always been tough to see in the flesh, very nocturnal.

4 lefts, 2 rts, not much change his best was year #2 @201.75. Year 3 he was 199 7/8. I forget the single dimensions but they aren't too shabby! No significant change except for fractions here and there, still trying to track down the rt of year #4, that far right single. I have a lead but can't make the connection, I hope he doesn't cut it up into knife handles and pot pipes!

Squirrel, I would probably enjoy that fire side chat. Got to love how the MB is the same on the end on that first buck
Greenhorn, That buck never gets old. His G4s are incredible.

Glad people enjoy the thread.

Antleradar

Very interesting thread, thanks for starting it and all those that shared info/pics.

IMO, "old downhill buck" and "cull buck" are very much alike. They are justification some hunters use for shooting something that may or may not be up to a standard, whatever that may be.

It seems the bucks I have a history of are pretty much as described. If they are gonna be hawgs they are hawgs fairly young and just don't change all that much

I know these are elk antlers on a deer antler thread....please forgive me
these sheds were found by my buddy and though we cant know the starting age we do know that these are sheds through 4 years (there was one year he didn't find either side)
the set in the back ground are the most recent.
I would say this bull is sticking to his size and configuration quite well through 4 years.

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Antlerradar, welcome to the site! Thanks for taking the time to post some interesting information.