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Big Antler Experiment and Results (Picture /Text Rich)

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    Big Antler Experiment and Results (Picture /Text Rich)

    Just to throw a relatively unique approach to growing deer with big antlers into the pot, let me relate a bit about a ranch that I got personally involved with a few years ago:

    Nine years ago the owner decided to high fence 1200 acres east of San Antonio in Guadalupe County. An effort was made to remove all of the native deer and then high genetic quality buck and doe deer from breeders were released into the ranch. The plan was to allow "pasture" breeding of the does. The goal was to see what exceptional introduced genetics could produce on a working cattle ranch where the deer would have to share the ranch with 175-200 mother cows. The deer were provided year around protein and food plots. There are 30 earth dam and concrete watering locations readily available to both cattle and deer scattered throughout the ranch. The owner gave the deer everything that he could provide for their benefit.

    In summary, we have:

    1. genetics for large antlers (exceptional)

    2. nutrition (native forage and unlimited protein)

    3. age (under owner control except for natural mortality as noted)

    Within just a few years we began seeing wonderful young bucks as would be expected, but we noted that the fawn production was not what we expected nor was the survival of bucks what we hoped for. Through fence snares and shooting we have done our best to control fawn loss due to coyotes. Our conclusion is that the genetic make-up of these deer, that came from roughly 50% Texas/50% Northern gene pen born deer, is that they simply were not tough enough for the dry Texas hot weather and an open ranch where their interface with that tough environment was totally unlike a pen.

    After 9 years all of the tagged bucks in the ranch are now gone with only one exception, buck #21. He was born on the ranch but was caught and tagged in the pasture when a newborn fawn. He was a spectacular buck in the 2017-18 season scoring about 360 as a 4 1/2 year old based on his sheds.

    "#21"


    There are still a few tagged does remaining in the ranch but all of the rest of the deer in the ranch are what we call "pasture" bred deer that we have no idea as to parentage. We lost to natural causes several really awesome bucks such as this one who died during the summer of 2015. His sheds put him at approximately 255 at 4 yo.

    "Holy Smoke"


    Many of the buck losses showed up after antler shed leading us to believe that it was primarily the drought and heat that got them during the summer. During this 9 year period, there were 2 or 3 severe drought periods. We also are aware of several bucks that were injured from fighting that contributed to their poor physical condition going into late winter.

    We killed a couple of management bucks in the 2014-15 season (two mainframe 8s, a 168 and a 180, both 6 1/2 yo). We did not kill any bucks in 2015-16 or the 2016-17 seasons but decided to kill the first serious trophy bucks in 2017-18 even though none had reached 7 1/2 yo (those premature deaths had us spooked..!). One was truly a spectacular non-typical, a pasture bred buck that took the 2017-18 Los Cazadores High Fence Division #1 buck at 333 2/8" as a 5 1/2 yo. This non-typical won the division by about 80", had 51 measurable points, over 50" of mass, and a drop tine of over 13".

    "Monster Mass"




    The other buck taken had a classic typical 10 point frame with lots of desirable extras and scored 196 7/8 as a 6 1/2 yo even though he had broken off a matching drop tine just a few days before harvest. With that drop tine he would have scored 204.

    "Prickly Tines"


    It appears from what we see so far that the common 4 yo and 5 yo buck is going to be a mainframe 10 pointer with significant extras and score about 200. Obviously, there will be exceptions but we believe that there will be as many above as below that norm. It also appears that these top-line genetic deer show mature level antlers much sooner than native deer as we have seen degradation between 4 yo and 5 yo in a few animals. Of course, it is possible that the drought was a factor.

    The owner is quite clear that even though there was a lot of learning and a few disappointments along the way, the bucks that have come from this experiment have more than made up for the cost and effort that he has expended. He has a great interest in seeing and producing exceptionally antlered bucks for his own pleasure and for his friends and guests but does not have any interest in any commercial aspect of hunting in any form on his ranch.

    I am not sure that any of this contributes greatly to the many discussions regarding whether age/genetics/nutrition is the most important factor in antler production but it does show that with all three of the key factors in place some spectacular results can be obtained.

    #2
    This is super interesting information to read. Great bucks too. Keep us updated on the ranch

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      #3
      Good information. Thanks for sharing.

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        #4
        Great read!

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          #5
          Good stuff. Thank you for posting.

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            #6
            Thanks for sharing.

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              #7
              Good write up. Definitely an interesting read. Thanks for sharing!

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                #8
                thanks for sharing

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                  #9
                  Great info. I wonder if the deer had been all natives if they would have been hardier. Would be interesting to see the results of that experiment

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                    #10
                    Thank you for that. Very interesting!

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                      #11
                      Imho, deer cant live on protein alone and the cows are eating all the natural food. Too many cows.

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                        #12
                        If you are experiencing more buck loss post antler drop, what are their body conditions post-rut? January and February are some of the hardest months for a buck to get through. Also, what is the estimated buck:doe ratio? Low numbers of does and high on bucks will almost always give you mortality loss due to fighting, and can even lead to lower fawning rates as bucks are fighting more than breeding at times.

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                          #13
                          Just pure speculation based on absolutely no data, but it seems like hybridizing with the native deer that were there when it was fenced would have maybe produced hardier deer if the experiment was to ever be reproduced.
                          Very cool info....Thanks for posting....

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                            #14
                            Great information. Thanks for sharing.

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                              #15
                              Awesome. Great read and refreshingly well-written.

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