Progression of a buck

[wilsongideon]

so here is the buck in 2011...scouted this buck and because he is actually a 4 point in seriously hunted pumpkin patch he is a shooter in my book. My nephew and sister both tried to get on him and we didnt even see him during the regular season. Saw him later in november obviously. He really just is a small buck but a dead on look he looks not bad his tiny forks and lack of mass earned him the name curly spindles. so on to this year.....

[wilsongideon]

so this year here is the same buck same place....buck may be just a hair wider and taller...forks havent expanded very much, mass gain isnt much. all and all still a nice buck from the pumkin patch and I am going to try and get my wife/nephew/sister on him opening day. shoot were a pumkin patch all by ourselves but whats dissappointing is just the overall gain from this now probably 4 year old buck. This buck defintly needs another year or two to reach his potential but I dont see him making it. if not from us...lucky someone else

[ellensburgpo]

Still a good buck. Is he in an area with poor food quality?

[wilsongideon]

typical shrub steppe - timber in the draws and high ground. sage, grass and bitterbrush. shoot everything in between...i suppose lack of rain this year could drive the nutrional quality down in the area he is in this year. didnt really think of the dryness, last year he possibly grew a shade bigger as it was wetter.

[boneaddict]

He is a puny bugger isn;t he.   Great photo series

[huntnnw]

MOST dont realize that bucks just dont get that big antler wise or had the ability to watch deer the same deer year after year to see how they grow. Whitetails that are 4x4 at 3.5yr old will rarely grow another tine ever and most never exceed 140" in their prime.. many have the thought that a buck will be a monster 170 one day, but very few have the genetics to ever grow that much antler no matter the food source

[sirmissalot]

He looks quite a bit bigger to me. Much bigger frame on him this year

[meatwhack]

I think it looks like that buck put on about 15" to 20" which would be decent growth in 1 year.  In my experience most bucks wont put on much more than this unless they have exceptional genetics and excellent food sources.   

[Maligator]

Maybe he was the runt in the genetic gene pool 

[wilsongideon]

Here is 2012

[wilsongideon]

Here is 2011

[fly4fish]

Curly could have easily been 2 in 2011 and 3 in 2012.  He could be a nice 150-160 buck for 2013; you never know.  He looks like he grew from the two years.

Do you know if he made it this year.  Hard to believe he made it last year. 

[wilsongideon]

I havent seen curly this fall. we hunted the area in october my wife killed another buck and my nephew and me hunted it several more times and never seen him. I have been up there a few times since hunting season but missed the best rut weekends so at this point I probably wont know unless I see him in velvet next spring.