How early can you tell if it's going to be a good buck?

[Torrent50]

At what point in the year have the antlers developed enough to really be able to tell what kind of buck it's going to be?  I got a couple on one of my cameras that look pretty young to me, but it got me wondering when you can start to get a good idea.  Thanks for any answers and info. 

[jackelope]

Mass will tell you a lot I think. Size of the bases. My mid June I could tell what bucks were going to be big for sure. Probably a more educated person could tell sooner.

[BULLBLASTER]

In 2010 i killed a mid 150s whitetail and by end of may he was already a 5x5. The big ones will be big in may.

[jackelope]

Mid June.




Unfortunately I never got pics of either of them again. I can't say they'd be Giants, But I think they were nice bucks.

[tgomez]

  Jackelope hit this one out of the ballpark. He knows his stuff!

[huntnnw]

guess that depends on what type of deer you are hunting and what good is to you? a 130-140"whitetail buck is good to most and those bucks are hard to tell and can be deceiving if your looking for giants. There are bucks that grow fast and early giving you hope that its going to be a 170" buck come August but they just stop growing. Then there are bucks that start slow and pack on the growth in late June and july surprising you how much they grew. For truly giant whitetails if they are going to grow 160" or more they start growing early and keep growing..there are only so many days for them to grow that much bone. The biggest buck I took was a main frame 5x6 plus double split brows on May 18th. Giant bucks with have some serious growth by early June

[Torrent50]

I pretty much confine myself to the west side and hunt blacktails.  Not much chance to make it anywhere else.  Maybe I will put my camera back up and see if I can keep an eye on the little guys that showed up on it for the rest of the summer.  May just be able to learn a thing or two.  Thanks for the input.