Why are Est Ok Deer supposed to be small vs West or TX

[getsum]

Heck, the place we bought is on the edge of the mountains.
All I hear here is that he Deer in the EAST are small .

WHY would they be smaller ?

It seems that they would be as big or bigger due to the amount of deep woods that they could hide/eat in ??

Explain to me plsase ..

 

[fishn&huntn]

Part of it could be genetics but they say it is mostly nutrition.The place I hunted N of OKC had alfalfa,wheat,acorns and other natural food sources.I killed a 200# buck there but most averaged 160#+ dressed.I have been hunting Ellis co lately the deer are large framed but not as heavy as the better farm country deer. Look at the positive they are easier to drag!

 

[oneshotonekill]

There is less food. That is the biggest reason. I had a buddy kill a 170# buck in eastern ok but it was on some of the bottom land which they farm like they farm out here in the west.

 

[ProBusiness]

maybe corn and wheat. my fatherinlaw run stockers on his wheat. I am not exactly sure of the stats, but a steer can gain a large amount of weight per week on wheat, i mean a lot. the steer goes from 400 to 700 lbs in not too long a time.

i saw a picture of a buck in N. Mexico with a very large rack and it was under 100 lbs. the right vitamins, etc grow the horns right?

a friend hunted around tahlequah for several years. no farmland there just natural food. 90 lbs was large for the area. most were around 70-80 both buck and doe.

 

[Ozark Tracker]

I live over here in the Ozark National Forrest, north of I-40, most of our deer are small, we have a few better deer come up from the bottom land but most of our deer try to fatten up on acorns and pasture grass and that just doesn't work as good as soybeans, alfalfa and wheat through the winter. they run tryin to find the feed and don't have any weight on em.

you can go down along the Arkansas river here and find lots of bigger deer.

 

[Ram_Tough_Truck]

May have something to do with population levels also.

We are seeing really nice bucks this year on the cams. Maybe even a couple 200 pounders out in the Ft. Gibson area.

 

[dennishoddy]

It has a lot to do with genetics, and somewhat with food.
There have been more B&C bucks taken from SE Ok but the body weights have been small.
As I understand it(and don't hesitate to correct me), the antler growth depends on genetics and the amout of minerals the deer can consume during the time when antlers are growing.
The "corn fed" deer are heavy bodied but need the genetics and minerals for growth. Example: I took a deer in archery season 12 years ago that field dressed 238 pounds from NC OK. It had a small basket rack 7 point that a yearling would be proud to wear. I have the rack and a pic of the deer wearing it. Age may have been a factor

I was at Big Mac for an archery hunt this weekend and I looked at the list where you check in, and saw that the Pope and Young, and Boon and Crockett bucks did not weigh any more than 150 lbs that were taken last year.
Thats just my theory from reading about the rack size/ body weight stats.

 

[Shadowrider]

It seems like that the farther North and colder the climate, the bigger the deer. Compare Nebraska, Illinois, etc. with Mexico. Just a theory of mine, I don't know of any science to back it up.

But I wouldn't think that this would apply to between the Oklahoma borders, as there isn't enough climate difference. I think it's the "corn fed" thing. The deer just get more food on farms than in the woods. Or it's of higher quality or something.

 

[Sniper John]

I consider the Deer in the Rattan area bigger than most Texas Deer. I took in a field dressed 10 point from Hugo that weighed in at 157 lbs. It was the smallest Deer in the book when I checked it in. The one just before mine I remember was 210 field dressed. On average these are bigger than Deer south of the River and way bigger than Texas Hill country Deer. Other than factors already posted, realize too there are different subspecies. The larger Whitetail farther north are of a different subspecies of what is in SE Oklahoma and Texas.