Busted Antlers

[Goose]

We have alot of bucks on camera and ones that we have seen with busted up antlers. From tines to beams. We got one with both busted off after the g1's, got one with all tines but one of his 2's busted off. My dad got a 3.5 8pt that his beam was busted off after his 3. Just wondering what causes this and what can someone do to try to help with this. Some kind of mineral or maybe getting to much of something? We had a 3 acre soybean field this year that they hit good so they ate good all summer and fall. I know its not the best all year food but we only have so much land. Just curious of your thoughts.

[jacannon63]

Maybe not enough does or too many bucks in the same age group.

[gunther89]

Goose i've heard its because they are fighting to get a hot doe.  Since being from Wisconsin and since there seems to not be to many does around we saw the same thing on our cameras as well.  We had 1 really nice buck break every point on his left side except his g3 off and I think it was because of fighting.  That's just what I think.  I don't think its because of lack of protein or minerals since you have food plots to feed the deer.

[ranwin33]

More than likely it's just hard fighting.  Might be some poor genetics but I'd doubt it.  If you haven't seen it in the past, and don't see it again in the future, chalk it up to a tough year of fights.  I doubt there are any minerals or such you could put out that the deer would eat enough of to really make a difference.

[Whitetails247]

Best bet is hot does. They will fight good and hard for her breeding rights.

[Jawbone]

I wonder if our severe winter last year had something to do with it Goose.  I saw a few half rack 1.5's this year and so did some of my buds.

[buckhunter21]

Could be lack of minerals, but I doubt it.  I would guess it's just from them fighting like crazy during the rut.  Might mean you have a hot, intense rut going on in your area which means you have the right doe/buck ratio!

[bowhunter53]

I have hunted the same property since the late 70's. At that time I rarely saw a busted up rack and there were many more does than bucks. As the years passed, there has been more doe tags and finally the CWD seasons with EAB. My buck to doe ratio has appeared to swing towards more bucks than does or at least more 1 to 1 ratio. Now by the time mid Nov. rolls around it is hard to get a buck without at least one broken point, if not serveral. I never saw or heard bucks fighting years ago and now I hear them often and usually see at least one hard fight per year and this year I even got a good fight on  trail camera pictures. So your broken racks are more than likely a result of a better buck to doe ratio.