How droptines are formed? (THEORY)
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: Jack Harris
06-Feb-20
Good friend of mine is a local taxidermist here in NJ. Recently he has received a few droptine bucks, and made an observation. Both had missing front teeth, and deformed jaws. Hardly enough evidence to be conclusive, but he posted it on a FB NJ deer hunting page, and was surprised to see other reports confirming there might be a pattern there. I am well aware that leg injuries definitely create some screwy racks with usually the opposite side of injury having the odd side. Has anyone else seen a correlation between Jaw/teeth and drop tines?
From: Rock
06-Feb-20
Interesting theory.
From: Woods Walker
06-Feb-20
Not in Illinois. This deer's teeth and jaws were fine. I've seen others that were drop tine and VERY large brow tine bucks who also had normal teeth/jaws. In west central Illinois I believe it's more of a genetic thing than a health issue.
From: EmbryOklahoma
06-Feb-20
Wonder if the ones that have kickers/stickers all over are just because their mother/father were cousins? Take that and stew on it. :)
From: Woods Walker
06-Feb-20
Only in Arkansas!!! ;-) In Illinois they just get taxed more.......
From: ROUGHCOUNTRY
06-Feb-20
It's genetic in my opinion. But...…..pearlation or beading, kicker points, drop tines and flyers all are more prevalent as a deer ages and matures. So, missing teeth or jaw malformations present as a deer gets older may coincide with genetic antler characteristics also materializing with age.
From: Huntcell
06-Feb-20
Do deer farmers experiment on developing deer racks to influence there drop time potential?
Like poking at spot during growth or introducing a. Bug or chemical or something. Betcha some have tried especially on cull bucks, in effort to try being up their marketability .
From: sticksender
06-Feb-20
What I do know is that drop tines can come and go. The buck I killed in '05 was a clean 10. But the year previous, he had a 5 inch drop tine and I still have both of those prior year sheds.
From: APauls
06-Feb-20
Too many variables that don’t line up IMO. But like one poster said a buck is much more likely to have a drop tine in maturity then when young. Ditto with injuries
From: Thornton
06-Feb-20
Suddenly everyone who shot a drop tine will be an expert on the subject even though they never looked at the teeth
From: Thornton
06-Feb-20
Zero. Shot 1 true droptine in my whole life and I didn't look in its mouth. My comment was meant that they may be on to something.
From: Iowa_Archer
06-Feb-20
If this theory is true then wouldn't all of the bucks from the deep south be drop tines? :)
From: Slate
06-Feb-20
From: Slate
06-Feb-20
From: Slate
06-Feb-20
From: Slate
06-Feb-20
From: Slate
06-Feb-20
From: Jack Harris
06-Feb-20
Slate posted all the supporting evidence I was referring too. Its an active discussion on a few NJ forums thought it was a good topic to go national on. Thanks for posting the pics Todd.
From: Bou'bound
06-Feb-20
I have proven the inverse so the opposite may be accurate.
I have never shot a droptine buck and none of my bucks had a messed up jaw.
From: Slate
06-Feb-20
You got it Jacko
From: IdyllwildArcher
06-Feb-20
It happens often enough and in the same place, that I think it's safe to assume a genetic element to it.
From: GF
06-Feb-20
I seem to recall reading that a droptine will form if the antler is injured in velvet and blood drips down like an icicle and the velvet can heal over the coagulated blood and then ossify. For what that’s worth.
I also recall reading that antlers have a mysterious way of growing that injury-induced rack configuration year after year, with the anomalies increasing in size like any other point.
Pretty sure that was textbook stuff 35 years ago... but I can’t swear to it.
One thought, though.... maybe having tooth/jaw issues forced the bucks to get their whole head closer to whatever they’re eating and they are therefore more prone to injury during velvet stage.
That would still account for dental issues “causing” the antler deformities, but indirectly....
Dunno. Just throwin’ out some stuff I recall...
From: bowhunter24
06-Feb-20
My buck from this year had 2 inches of his jaw messed up and he had no deformities, other than being a so so rack. Wait that's normal for my deer.
From: Catscratch
06-Feb-20
Sometimes traits are linked due to genes being in close proximity to each other on a chromosome. I wonder if genetic jaw deformities and the gene for droptines are close together?
From: Jack Harris
06-Feb-20
Catscratch that is an interesting theory on top of the "theory" - the jaw/tooth anomaly is genetic and is linked to the antler trait, as opposed to an injury leading to the antler trait
From: Hans 1
07-Feb-20
This buck had a short/ deformed lower jaw. We never harvested him but he had his tongue out in the majority of pics. We named him Gene Simmons
From: Jack Harris
07-Feb-20
Thanks Hans 1 - certainly adding ammo to supporting evidence there might be a correlation.
From: 1boonr
07-Feb-20
Anything is possible and I would think a deer farmer would be able to clear this up. I shot a buck in 99 without the droptine it had the year before. Do you think he may have healed his jaw?
From: Grey Ghost
07-Feb-20
My cousin shot a big bull with 6 beautiful typical points on one side, the other side had a single spike with a massive club-like drop tine. We assumed it was from an injury. One day we were looking around the old ranch house where we camped and found an old faded rack that had the exact same configuration. I have to believe most drop tines are a result of genetics. Whether there's a genetic connection between Jaw/teeth abnormalities and drop tines, I can't say. The bull my cousin shot had a normal jaw and teeth.
Matt
From: Bake
07-Feb-20
I've caped a couple deer for family and friends that had jaw problems and regular racks. One in particular was noteworthy as his lower jaw had been broken. Not recently though. HIs rack was normal, pretty nice for our area (140s), but his body was tiny for his age. And he wasn't in great condition physically
