Bowsite.com

3-4?

4-5?

5-6?

6-7?

An old taxidermist friend in Iowa I usually see the racks that are brought in are in the 150s and over are usually average 5 yrs or more but there is an age time of regression also. He did a rack for my Father's buck that dress out 247# and the teeth were around 9 yrs old and the rack were thick and stunted, the head was scared from battles, my Dad was 87 yrs old and the farmer got his skidded down to get it out of the creek and scaled it on his scale, it was shot with a H&A .45 smoke pole, his last hunt.

Remember attending a WiDNR whitetail meeting (west-central forrest zone) in July 97 and their chart of buck lifespans was 0 at 4yrs, majority lived to 2 yrs old, not great for antler growth.

Excuse my ramble.

Mark

"Jan 20, 2009 Back in the early 80's a local guy had a buck named Desi that he raised from a fawn. It's mama had been killed by a car in front of his house. He saved all the sheds and when Desi died(of natural causes) at about 10 years old he had a local taxidermist, Paul Thomas, do mounts of all his racks to show his progression through the years. For a while Desi was on tour of outdoor shows"

"Jan 20, 2009 I received Legendary Whitetails by Dick Idol for Christmas and this buck was profiled in it. Very interesting story. All of the deers racks were pictured showing the progression of antler growth. He was a typical until age 6 and then began growing non-typicals everywhere. The largest rack was at age 10 and he died at 12. I'm at work (LOL) and don't have the book infront of me but I think he ended up scoring in the 230s"

https://www.ohiosportsman.com/threads/anyone-remember-desi.24976/

"For 12 years the family of Bob Baird had a remarkable trophy deer on its farm near Canfield, Ohio.

At first a typical 6-point whitetail, the buck began growing abnormal antler points at 6 1/2 years of age. This deer eventually sprung a hatful of 39 abnormal points on a 4-by-4 frame, earning an outstanding Boone & Crockett score of 296 in its 10th year. The right main beam held 28 points and the left had 19.

It went downhill after that, scoring 260 points at age 11 1/2 and dying at the age of 12 in 1985.

How do we know all this of a deer that never had been hunted?

Well, Desi, as the Bairds called this buck, was a family pet. When the deer was orphaned after birth, the Bairds and their children raised him in a barn along with a small herd of dairy cows. Desi was fed a normal diet of sweet feed and corn. He never received hormonal supplements to increase antler growth.

And, as behooves a captive deer, he shed his antlers right in that barn every year, where the Bairds could pick them up and save them for posterity.

Larry Huffman of West Bend, Wis., now has the mounted deer and its complete set of 11 racks in his Legendary Whitetails enterprise. He shows trophy deer racks around the country, including the famous Mel Johnson record buck and the Hole-in-the-horn buck. He will bring Desi–and all of Desi’s antlers–to the Illinois Deer & Turkey Classic this Friday through Sunday at Peoria Civic Center.

“There is no other set in the world like this that I know of,” Huffman said.

Glenn Helgeland of Mequon, Wis., who operates the Peoria show and four other state deer classics, said what caused Desi to grow such a wild rack in the middle of his life never has been explained, nor will it ever be.

“It could be genetics, sudden hormone changes, the steady diet of captivity,” he said. “It is a fascinating display of antlers grown by one whitetail buck. It’s unlikely you’ll ever see another example like it.”"

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1999/03/24/ohio-family-helps-captive-buck-rack-up-the-points/

SD - Unfortunately I couldn't find any pix of "Desi" on the internet, that was back before Al Gore invented in internet...8^) But yeah, please post if you can find any... Maybe somebody has "Legendary Whitetails by Dick Idol" and can help us out... The book was out of my price range back in the day and I just checked to buy on the internet and it's still out of my price range...8^)

It was a piebald so the hunter was 100% sure of the age

The winter of 23/24 never really happened. It was very warm and almost zero snow all winter. I'm almost certain that weird racked buck blew up into this 15 point non-typical and I believe he was only 3.5 years old. I believe the extremely mild winter allowed him to grow to his potential. I have numerous photos of him all over my property and actually missed him on the evening of September 24th (my birthday). My neighbor killed him the following week and he field dressed 228 pounds. It would have been interesting to see what he would have turned into in a year or two. There have been a couple really big non-typicals killed around my neck of the woods.

I believe most will reach their top potential at 6 personally and then start to regress somewhat after that....lots of factors from year to year to consider though.

I think the biggest visual jump is 2 to 3, but going from decent to stud is probably more like 4-5.

I was always told 5 to 6 was the biggest jump. By 5 there body’s are fully grown so they could put the nutrients into the rack.

Now there are exceptions...

One buck that I was lucky enough to hunt/ observe made an incredible jump from what I believe started at 3.5 (when I first became aware of him) as probably a low-mid 130s 8pt to ~ 183" at 4.5. I know who has 1 shed from him as an 8pt and have held it. I have the 180 class set of sheds. It's 100% the same buck. The biggest side is 85"+ and nearly 4lbs. That buck had next to no change in crop rotation/ options the following year(s) and regressed to what I judged at ~170, and then the next year he was poached and supposedly scored 174 - which I believe. During the 4 years I documented him, IMO, his body represented what I'd have guessed his age to be.

Thanks for sharing SaddleReaper... Got any pix to share?... Thanks...

This deer, I think was 7 when I killed him but the taxidermist was sure he was 8. Deer definitely lost length but gained mass the last year. Was also injured from the year before, must not have been too bad but I did see him limping for a few weeks at the end of 2021. I have one shed from what was likely 3.5 which was nothing special.

This deer would just show up late Oct or early Nov and stay till he shed his rack. I shot him thinking he was a 5.5, didn’t really grow much from the previous year, and he was a bully that took over the property and there some good deer down the road I’d like to move onto mine. I saw the teeth and the taxidermist was pretty sure he was 6.5 when I killed him and I’d agree with him. I found 3 yrs worth of sheds from him. I thought he was a really nicely formed yearling the first year but I guess he was a small two year old