EliAGrimmett
Member
My Dad and I were talking about how our ranch hunts in NM work and were thinking about how to figure out which bucks are the ones with potential to grow larger horns in future years and which bucks were already at their max horn growth.
I have no idea how to know which is which. Are there any biologists who may know what to look for?
Let's say we have a ranch with 3 tags and we have 4 bucks that should all score exactly 85 inches. If they're all equally beautiful in the hunters eyes, which buck should we leave standing to breed and to potentially grow larger in the future?
Would it be a heavy type buck? A long one? One with big prongs? Should the buck be wide? Narrow? Should it have a lot of knots and bumps on the horns? Should it look young? I really don't know if I could even tell the difference between a 2 year old buck and a 3 year old buck, though.
I do have a lot of photos from one year to the next, but just from memory, I don't notice any patterns emerging. I'll have to dive into those pics a little more thoroughly to see if anything emerges.
What does everyone think?
I have no idea how to know which is which. Are there any biologists who may know what to look for?
Let's say we have a ranch with 3 tags and we have 4 bucks that should all score exactly 85 inches. If they're all equally beautiful in the hunters eyes, which buck should we leave standing to breed and to potentially grow larger in the future?
Would it be a heavy type buck? A long one? One with big prongs? Should the buck be wide? Narrow? Should it have a lot of knots and bumps on the horns? Should it look young? I really don't know if I could even tell the difference between a 2 year old buck and a 3 year old buck, though.
I do have a lot of photos from one year to the next, but just from memory, I don't notice any patterns emerging. I'll have to dive into those pics a little more thoroughly to see if anything emerges.
What does everyone think?