Photo courtesy of Larry Downey This respectable buck might actually have genes for much bigger antlers.

Whenever you hear news of a big buck being killed, you can bet someone will say, “I hope he got to spread his genes around!” I hope so too, but large antlers are not a predictor of breeding dominance. Sometimes a deer with smaller antlers is an aggressive, energetic and relentless little guy who will breed more than his share of does. But don’t underestimate him based on small antlers. He may have genetics for big antlers.

How can that be? How can a buck with small antlers carry genes for large antlers? It’s simple. He’s young. And his antlers indicate his youth, the health of his mother when she was carrying him, and the quality of the habitat he lives in. A buck doesn’t show the crown he can grow until he’s finished growing the frame of his body. In other words, his antlers don’t reflect his full maturity until his skeleton reaches full maturity, at about 5½ years of age.

Here in northern Pennsylvania and southern New York, few bucks become truly mature, so let’s consider a 4½ year old buck. He has been through four rutting seasons, starting when he was 1½ years old. His first antlers were unimpressive, and if you looked out the window and saw him in your garden you’d never say, “I hope he gets to spread his genes around!”

Year by year he replaced his antlers with a bigger set. When he reached 4½ years old he got the attention of everyone who saw him, and that’s when someone commented on his antler genetics. No one thought about the fact that even when he was a young buck with immature antlers, he was spreading genes for large antlers.

We think of bucks with large antlers being the dominant breeders, but antler size isn’t as important for successful breeding as we might think. One deer can be genetically gifted to have a big body, but not genetically gifted for antler size. Another might be genetically gifted for antler size, but is a pipsqueak in body size.

In 2015 I shot the biggest buck of my life. He was only a six-point, but he field-dressed at 190 pounds. His pre-rut live weight would have been easily north of 250 pounds. A year later, within 200 yards of the spot where I killed the 2015 buck, I shot a mature eight-point with a rack that was heavier, wider, and had longer tines. He weighed only 117 pounds. Both had strong genetics, one for body size, the other for antler size. Which did more breeding? It’s impossible to know.

A smaller, aggressive buck might do two or three times as much breeding than a larger buck that is a loner. A big buck might be like a tuba player in the band who is bigger and stronger than anyone on the football team, but he likes playing the tuba more than he likes hitting people and getting hit on the gridiron.

Some bucks are like that — big and strong, but risk averse. They’d rather avoid a fight, even if it means they won’t compete sexually. Some bucks are reclusive, keeping a limited home range and not venturing far to do their breeding. Even if they have record book antlers, they don’t necessarily contribute much to the gene pool. A buck’s big antlers do not mean all the does are interested in bearing his offspring. If you watch does during the rut, they’re not looking for bucks with impressive headgear. More likely they act like they’re trying to avoid all bucks.

Bucks are like people. When you were in ninth grade, some of your classmates were already shaving coarse whiskers. Others were shy and seldom said a word. Others were skinny kids, or overweight, and were targets of the class bully. Later, they developed a muscular physique. The tallest kid in ninth grade might be below average as a senior.

As people mature, they change. Physically, what a kid was in junior high or middle school had little to do with what he became. It’s that way with deer, too. We don’t get to see a buck’s potential for antler size until he shows us, and that comes at maturity.

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When “The Everyday Hunter” isn’t hunting, he’s thinking about hunting, talking about hunting, dreaming about hunting, writing about hunting, or wishing he were hunting. If you want to tell Steve exactly where your favorite hunting spot is, contact him through his website, www.EverydayHunter.com. He writes for top outdoor magazines, and won the 2015, 2018, and 2023 national “Pinnacle Award” for outdoor writing.