Half racks.

[jakeman]

No mystery here. China virus.

Clearly.

 

[undeg01]

My son sent me this picture yesterday off one of my non cellular cameras. He’s new, and I hope goes back to wherever he came from.

The county I live in in Texas is a two buck county now, but only one buck can be a “trophy” buck. The second buck has to be a spike or have at least one unbranched antler. I don’t think that’s a bad rule, but I don’t think all these bucks with bad sides have genetic issues. I think many had an “injury” during the growing stage this year and will probably have a normal rack next year.

View attachment 180910View attachment 180911

Yah, he needs to go. As mature and heavy as he is, he just ain’t right in the genetics department.

 

[retrieverman]

Yah, he needs to go. As mature and heavy as he is, he just ain’t right in the genetics department.

I encouraged my son to pursue him, but he’d rather hunt ducks than deer at this point in the season.

 

[16colt]

Here’s one of mine. I have never seen so many poor racks on my cameras as I have this year.

 

[16colt]

Another.

 

[undeg01]

Another. View attachment 180943

He may only have a half rack but it appears he has a full set of ball based on the scrapes on his back. He obviously is not afraid to engage in a tussle.

 

[murphranch]

400 yards from where those pictures come from I have another camera that has these 3 on it. Don't think it's genetics.

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[huntemup]

As many know, you’re not altering genetics by culling free ranging deer. Their genes are already out there many times over thanks to the bucks and does that created them, their “siblings”, and those they’ve sired.

Also, there are plenty of websites out there that document bucks through the years that have experienced amazing antler growth just a year after looking like a cull worthy buck-even those one sided bucks. You just never know what a deer will do from one year to the next.


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[kirk1978]

The last several years I have had a ton of small deer with half/messed up racks. This year only 1 with a messed up side.

 

[undeg01]

As many know, you’re not altering genetics by culling free ranging deer. Their genes are already out there many times over thanks to the bucks and does that created them, their “siblings”, and those they’ve sired.

Also, there are plenty of websites out there that document bucks through the years that have experienced amazing antler growth just a year after looking like a cull worthy buck-even those one sided bucks. You just never know what a deer will do from one year to the next.


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I agree to some extent. But if you don’t cull those big mature sire bucks, the bad genetics become very prolific as that buck will likely breed more does than the smaller, less dominant bucks. So you have to start someplace.

When we took a lease 4 years ago, there was a grandpa buck, his offspring buck (probably 3 1/2 yo) and a 2 year old buck. All had a perfect rack on the left and a spike with a fork on the right. We took them out the first 2 years of the lease. The third year, racks showed improvement and this year, there is only one buck still exhibiting those genetics. Sure, there will still be occasional kickbacks and those genes will show themselves from time to time, but we are seeing improvements.