Nice Whitetails

[huntnphool]

Here are a couple velvet bucks from Sherman Creek

[Outfitter]

Does anyone know what causes these growths?? We see this one one particular piece of land we have.There not permanent.They have them for a month or so and then there gone.

[Drop Tine]

WOW   

[bowhuntin]

I wonder if they get those big racks because of what is in the feed? Sure looks like it would be tough to hunt them by how thick the vegetation is up in that part of the state.

[WAcoyotehunter]

I don't know...i've seen that before in Grand Coulee area.  We had horses around and i've seen some (but smaller) lumps like that from bot flies?  That's all we could figure.
ChocLab- you have horses- do you ever get infected bots?

[Ridgerunner]

WOWSERS, those are some whitetails, holy smokes, one of these years I need to go after whitetails.

[LongTatLaw]

BOWHUNTN...thats what the south east looks like most places...thats why people almost exclusively treestand hunt...because in thick stuff like that...you aint sneaking up on anything!!!

As for those lumps.... I hear they make for good eating...  kinda like a carmelo...just gotta get to the creamy center!

[mossback91]

I don't know...i've seen that before in Grand Coulee area.  We had horses around and i've seen some (but smaller) lumps like that from bot flies?  That's all we could figure.
ChocLab- you have horses- do you ever get infected bots?

Yeah maybe some sort of parasitic thing like that larvae get in there and can make that. Weird kinda makes ya wann open it up too bad they arent like that during season just to see what is really goin on. Never seen anyhting like that on deer. I guess one of my cousin's friends shot one covered in growths like that in the methow a couple years back the gamies gave him another tag and took the deer never heard what was wrong with it

[Outfitter]

I wonder if they get those big racks because of what is in the feed? Sure looks like it would be tough to hunt them by how thick the vegetation is up in that part of the state.

                       
                 There horns are definitely growing due to the feed.We have watched the horns grow tremendously on our property's over the last few years since using this grain.Its not over the counter feed.We had soil test done and have a mill mix the grain ,adding the minerals that the deer are not getting in our area for maximum horn growth.Along with protine.If anyone is interested in doing it with deer in there area I can hook a brother up! It needs to be done starting in March through August.After that its mainly fed for bait.Halfmoon Feeds in Deer Park WA does it.

[huntnphool]

Hey Joe, you might consider sending these pics to WSU, I would be willing to bet they could give you a pretty good idea of whats going on, probably not 100% without a biopsy but I pretty close.

[mossback91]

Look into bot flies and nasal bot flies it almost seems like this might be what they are. The larvae hatch out in late summer. Not sure but seems reasonable. what does the area where the growth si look after the growth is gone?

Man I just wanna poke those growths with a knife.

[SHANE(WA)]

Dumping grain or supplementing feed isnt enough no matter how much you dump or high quality it is, a bucks diet will be up to 80% browse, enhance the native browse and get more sunlight to the ground by opening the canopy and fertilizing and frost seeding in march will pay off huge.

[Outfitter]

Deer need nutrition now when there starving from the depth of the snow and can't get it from natural browse.That's why the game department runs feeding stations.To keep them alive ! If they go into spring healthy then they have a huge jump on horn growth and fawn survival.Food plots in this country don't come up in time to do any good on horn growth.Maybe on the west side they would but not here. We have been working with WSU on this for years to get it right and we are seeing at least 20'' more horn growth on 4 1/2 and 5 1/2 yr old deer on our property by feeding them. If you just have to kill one good deer a year you can find one if you hunt hard enough without feeding but we have to fill 40 tags a year , so we feed almost year around to make sure we have a healthy herd.Its not just bait.

[SHANE(WA)]

yeah its going to help in the winter, but I have deer in certain areas that are near you that will not touch supplement feed, antler max, sweet mix, corn, alfalfa. Where I hunt most of the time the deer go close to 10 miles away during the winter,so feeding isnt a option.

[Outfitter]

Heres an example.These pictures are both from our propertys that are only 8 miles apart and the same elevation.The pictures are within a week of each other.You can see in the pictures that there is plenty of browse for them to eat. The picture with 2 deer were given feed year around.The other deer wasn't started on feed until the middle of May. You can see how there not getting nutrition out of browse and the time frame of the pictures is in the middle of there horn growing time. You have to be in an area where they have good genes but you can majorly increase there horn size with feed.We are taking 170-190 class deer now where on the same property 10 years ago we could rarely break 150.