School me on Blackbuck

[afishinman14]

Alright I do know a little bit about them. Not completely in the dark. I know they turn black as they mature, etc. And that anything over 3 curls is a pretty good buck.

I'm curious as to their behavior. We have a very small group on our low fence lease outside Rocksprings. See the same ones every trip. 3 does, a fawn, and a buck. And then separately we have two younger bucks walking around solo. The buck with the harem won't allow the other bucks near them.

The buck that's with the does has put on a full curl in the last year. Went from 1+ curls to 2+ curls. Hoping he repeats that and will be over 3 curls come winter 2018. What are the odds of this? We will consider harvesting him if he does. But we're still up in the air on that. We may let him live to continue to breed. As we see a new fawn fairly often.

What are yalls thoughts? If we shoot him, will one of the other bucks then move in on the does and pick up where he left off? Will they all disappear for some reason? They've been on our place the last 1-2 years. Haven't left. We know right where to look for them and see them 99% of the trips we take out there. Just don't want to mess that up.

Also, do all bucks reach 3+ curls if you give them enough time? Or are there bucks that will die of old age with only having grown 1-2 curls?


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[AntlerCollector]

If you shoot the breeding buck the next one in line will soon turn black and take over the breeding duties. They don't like to jump fences. Most likely they will stay on your place

[hchntr]

Before you harvest him, I would think that you would want to ensure that one of the other two bucks are of breeding age so that the does can continue to be bred. If that’s even possible. Hopefully someone will chime in on this.


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[Patton]

Number of curls is just one of the factors in a trophy blackbuck, many people are interested in length over # of curls. Some BB can have 3 tight curls in 16-17" while others may be 24" and 3 curls.

We had a similar situation occur several years ago when about 4 or 5 blackbuck showed up. We didn't shoot them for several years and now I have seen as many as 30 or more. They multiply quick if you allow them. A black coat comes with age, dominance, and seasons (winter usually means darker). We have seen our numbers fluctuate up and down over the years and I am not sure if that was caused by tough weather or predators.

I would bet that one of the other bucks would take his place as the new dominant buck if you were to shoot the bigger one.

[buzzbait]

They seem to crap in the same place every time.

[b.latiolais]

Yes another buck will take over breeding. Also, like Patton mentioned, I would look more at length of horn than number of curls. We shot one this year on our place that was about 21"-22" long but he had 3 elongated curls, not tight curls. That buck was about 9-10 years old. Harsh winter can kill them. And they must have a water source also.

If you continue to let them breed, eventually you could have enough does that they split into to separate groups and a buck breeding each group.

[PondPopper]

Another buck will take up his slack pronto and they breed/multiply like rats.. If you like him, shoot him.. Letting him grow wont hurt a thing either..

[JonBoy]

They seem to crap in the same place every time.

This. We had em on our previous lease and we'd have spots in one of the pastures just piled up with BB crap...literally. They always seemed to visit the same spots to do their bidness.

As others said one of the other bucks will become the dominant male and they go in and out of their black phase for several reasons. When they're rutting the buck makes a weird funky grunt/chuff sound...kind of like an old smoker's cough.

[afishinman14]

This is the progress he has made in 1 year.

Any guesses on current length? I'm guessing somewhere in the 15-18" range.

October 2016


December 2017



Sorry for the pics if a computer screen. All I have handy, is video of him. Yes I had him at 15yd from a tree stand. But as of now, we're not shooting him yet.


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[Azzy]

That guy is still fairly young.