Reaching Their Potential
Posted By
Jared Mills
at
11/14/2011 12:00:00 AM
Reaching their Potential
When we took over our farm 8 years ago the property had been hunted hard. In fact the year before they had taken 8 bucks all 8 point or better. The deer on it were never reaching their full potential. Our goal was to increase the age structure of our bucks and see what they could become. It was an exciting opportunity and challenge. The first few years we saw a lot of nice deer in the 2-3 year old category. We were thrilled to be able to shoot a few 3 years olds that were the biggest bucks we had ever seen and shot up to that point. After a few years we changed our focus to only 4 year old and older. This was the ultimate challenge of letting our deer reach their full potential. Here are 3 of the deer that we have been following over the years: 
Towers
We passed him as a three year old in 08 who had nice potential. In 09 he grew almost 40” making the large jump bucks often do between 3 and 4 years of age. Added another 10+” in 2010. Looked better than ever entering the 2011 season. Our brother Titus shot him Nov. 3 with his best rack ever grossing just over 200”
You can see the awesome results of a very good genetic buck from 3 ½ to a 6 ½ year old buck.
Double Brow
The most exciting trailcam picture we had ever had up to that point in 08. Put on over 40” of non-typical points in 09 but broke part of his beam in early October. Back to a more symmetrical frame in 2010. Very similar to last year in 2011.
Beams
Was the oldest buck on our farm in 08 when we started running cameras (estimated 5 yrs old)Had his best rack in 09. Mitchell and I almost closed the deal having him within 30 yards but he never gave us a good angle. Dropped off a little bit in size but started growing some non-typical points. Is a tank as a 8 year old with a really unique drop tine.
I was fortunate enough to close the deal on the quest for beams on Nov. 9. The journey after so many years makes the accomplishment so sweet. It is interesting to watch how beams rack changed as he got older. He went from a main frame 10 down to a main frame 8 but the older he got the more character he started to show.
It has been a thrilling quest chasing after these three giants. Their antlers didn’t always get bigger every year but you can see when they reached their full potential how special they can be. What a years it’s been knocking down two out of the three. Hopefully we can finish the chapter of the lone survivor, double brow in the near future. Thank you for joining us in our quest.
Justin Kamps
