Summer Antler Growth
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
7/31/2009 12:00:00 AM
Filed under:
journal
We have started filming bucks again and that always brings with it the annual question: "How much bigger do you think this buck will get?" Every buck is different. Some are genetically inclined to grow sooner or faster than others, just as some drop their antlers before or after others in the winter. I filmed a giant 3 year old last night that would push 170 inches. (Now if I can keep my neighbors from shooting him we will really have something next year!) That buck was nearly done growing. In fact, I would say he was 95% done. Yet he was walking with a nice 120 inch 2 year old that still has knobs on the ends of his beams and tines.
So you can't simply say that by a certain date the bucks will have attained a certain percentage of their final size. Instead, you have to look at the antlers themselves for clues.
If the antlers have knobs at the end of the tines amd the main beams, they still have some growing to do. However, if they are thinned down, almost to a point, at the ends, the buck is basically done growing. I have seen bucks that were done growing in late July and others that didn't look done until the middle of August.
In the following five minute video, Tim Filiowich, the producer of the MW - Minnesota shows this season, interviews a man who owns a commercial whitetail farm. It is an interesting interview with some good information about antler growth, antler size and development.
http://cdn.cloudfiles.mosso.com/c67342/TimAntlers.flv
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