Why are antlers the color they are???

[shadowless_nite]

Just curious and this is probably a newb question. But why are antlers various colors? some being very dark and some being very light. I understand that where they get rubbed down they are obviously lighter, but is there anything that really makes them the color they become? age? genetics? area? just always wondered

[huntnphool]

Most has to do with what they rub them on.

[WDFW-SUX]

Sun bleach too.

[singleshot12]

I think it has more to do with genetics..I've seen bucks in the same area with light and dark antlers. Also in velvet, the antlers are either light or dark in the same area.
Rubbing on alder or willow might make them redder or blacker at the bases though.

[shadowless_nite]

Most has to do with what they rub them on.

Does the color from what they rub stain them??? so if an animal rubbed a cedar often it would turn more reddish?? and would sun bleached lighter colors be more common on animals from more open landscape like the eastside vs the wetter brushier wetside??

What really sparked my interest was after I killed my bull I had very nice dark color to them and when I compared it to my brother inlaws bull from 2 years his was very light in color all around. Also when my dads friend killed his rifle bull this year it was very dark in color but it was only a few miles from where my brother inlaw killed his bull 2 years ago??

[andrew_12gauge]

I think it has more to do with genetics..I've seen bucks in the same area with light and dark antlers. Also in velvet, the antlers are either light or dark in the same area.
Rubbing on alder or willow might make them redder or blacker at the bases though.

umm wouldnt it make sense that if a deer or elk in the same area rubbed its antlers on the same kind of vegetation that they would be around the same color

[fishcrazy]

They don't allways use the same vegatation in the same erea. One bull might like alders and the other might like pines and firs.


Kris

[singleshot12]

I don't think it always has anything to do with the vegitation they rub on. Their antlers seem to be light or dark before they rub on anything. I've seen bucks with the velvet still hanging and their bone already chocolate.

[actionshooter]

I've killed a critter or 2 in the velvet and they are bone white underneath except for the dried blood. 
 Its what they rub on.

[ouchfoss]

From what I've noticed over the years it seems to be the tell tail sign of what he's been rubbing on. Its kinda odd how certain bulls will choose to rub only one kind of tree. Around here black horns arent too uncommon and if you see that it means he's been rubbing spruce trees.

[agchawk]

I've killed a critter or 2 in the velvet and they are bone white underneath except for the dried blood. 
 Its what they rub on.

Yup...and the folks here are correct. The color is simply stained bone (it is indeed white underneath the velvet. Just like any other bone in the body that is stripped of skin, meat, or in this case velvet). The majority of the color is a result of the type of vegetation that that particular animal is rubbing on. Throw in a little dried blood, dirt, etc and you get the color.

[buckskin]

agchawk is 100 % correct,bone white once the velvet is rubbed off than what ever that animal prefers or has in his surroundings dictates the color.

[Romulus]

If the bull has red colored antlers he is rubbing on alder trees. The super dark horns with white tips that most covet is primarily rubbing on fir trees. If you smell the horns you will usually smell pitch. I think the pitch makes dirt stick to the horns better when they are rubbing the horns in the mud possibly.

[Bigbuckhunter_1996]

ya mostly depends on wut they rubbed their velvet off on my buck from the bases to about half way up the horn wuz literally black

[alecvg]

I think it is what they rub on, deer down in sage, generally have light colored antlers, bucks up in burns, often have very dark antlers, almost black sometimes, deer living in thick timber will usually have dark brown antlers. 

[poohdog]

I have been by the elk farm in north west Idaho a few times and the bulls have white horns. There is nothing for them to rub but fence.

[eastside boy]

Rubs!!

[Shootmoore]

Yep what they rub.  Thats how we could always tell when the mountain bucks came down to the sagebrush.  The local bucks have light colored horns and the mountain boys had chocalate.

Shootmoore

[boneaddict]

100% what they are rubbing on 0% genetics.  You'll get different colors from pine, fir, spruce, willows alders sage etc.   The regional differences you'll see will often only be because of vegetation.  It is my experience that pine leaves the reddish bone, and spruce the darkest.   Fir is somewhere in-between.   Piss fir or yellow fir leaves pretty dark bone.   Lodgepole(pine) is pretty chocolate with a hint of red.  Willow is almost white or very light.  Sage is tan to light.    Its pretty easy to spot an alpine bull versus a local versus say a firing center bull. 

[MtnMuley]

Can't believe you missed the larch, bone...   They leave a reddish orange color.

[boneaddict]

Yeah, good point and they love to rip them too.   

[Broken Arrow]

Hhile helping my buddy spot in the desert unit several weeks ago....we saw a very nice buck that was completly diffent looking both in color and horn color then all of the rest of the bucks we had seen. This was a very mature buck, not very wide but very, very tall. 99% of all the other deer we saw were gray with grayish antlers ( many mature bucks as well). This deer was extremely brown...stood out like a sore thumb, and had very reddish brown antlers, again stood out like a sore thumb.....I agree antler color has to do with what they are rubbing on, though this buck really made me question that.

[boneaddict]

Deer do get moved around and who knows where he came from.  Not sure what Russian Olive does to antlers.  There are also pine stands to the north around banks and stuff and in some of the other coulees out there.   He could ahve possibly been pushed in. 

[Broken Arrow]

good point...didnt really consider that....duh!

here is a nice link on antler colors:

http://www.bgdailynews.com/articles/2009/10/18/sports/sports6.txt

[CastleRocker]

Fir=dark brown, Alder=orange, Hemlock=black.  

I've got the racks from a set of twin bulls, that were killed one year apart, one is orange from the alders, and one is black from the hemlock.  Obviously genetics didn't have anything to do with it, didn't even make them want to rub the same trees.

And yes they were twins.  The local herd had one cow that had a white spot on her butt, and she threw twins almost every year.  They wintered in and around our pasture, so we were able to watch them for a couple days every two weeks for years and years, until their pattern changed.

[boneaddict]

Nice link but the guy is full of it.  Hes been watching too many disney films.

[ouchfoss]

A couple years ago when I was deer hunting I found an area where a buck would rub nothing but scotch broom. Makes me wonder what his horns would have looked like.

[buckskin]

I don't know maybe It was said already, but the real dark (black) horns often come from the burns.

[carpsniperg2]

here is what i have seen we have a large population of migratory deer that come down to our rach when the weather in the mountians gets to bad they are always dark horned our local deer that live there year round have more bleached horns from the sun and sage they rub on. the mountain bucks almost get a stain on them from the trees they rub on before coming down to the sage and oaks were they winter at.

[croix]

Every year at camp we see a scrape at one of the sign posts. Wonder what rubbin that post does for the color. 

[coonhound]

Every year at camp we see a scrape at one of the sign posts. Wonder what rubbin that post does for the color. 

That's funny, when I was on my late whitetail hunt I saw 3 different corner posts that had a scrape and a rub.  One of them looked like it had been rubbed on for years?

[belkaholic]

evan though trees can add to the finnish i cant imagen a elk being able to rub a tree so evanly on every milameter of its rack. WASU did alot of studys on elk and it has to do with the velvet and how bloody it is when it comes off. the longer it stays on the whiter it is, the blood has dried up and shows more of the bone colar. comes off earlyer and the blood dries and stains it more. the tips turn white from them rubbing them on everything,trees ,shrubs the ground.  lots of good info from WASU, u should see what they said about ageing wild game.

[shadowless_nite]

wow i havent checked this thread for a few days and i guess i got my question answered. thanks everyone this has been some insightful info.