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Old December 10, 2005, 10:30 AM   #2
Art Eatman
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Join Date: November 13, 1998
Location: Terlingua, TX; Thomasville, GA
Posts: 24,798
When a mule deer is full-grown, he spreads about 19" to 20" from ear tip to ear tip. You can sorta proportion the inches that antlers extend past the ear tips.

The next judging, I guess, would be the mix of points and thickness of the antlers. Darker and thicker beams on older deer. The number of points and the width will vary with food supply in late winter, spring and early summer.

When deer get older, a really big buck will get pot-bellied and swaybacked. IIRC, that's on up around 7-1/2 years. Most deer don't make it past 8-1/2 years. Their teeth wear out, for one thing. All that nibbling herbs and forbs right on the ground means they're chewing a bit of dirt or sand when they eat.

In the late fall, before the rut, bucks go on what I call a feeding frenzy, building up weight. During the rut they'll hardly eat, and drink even less frequently than usual. They build up a layer of tallow over the rump that can be over an inch thick. Unless the weather turns really cold, they won't move around much. Anything above freezing and it's like wearing a down jacket in summer.

In general, the Texas mule deer season is ahead of the rut. The timing affects the majority of bucks, not all bucks, of course. That means that most of the bucks, and particularly the larger ones, are still lying around not doing much moving about in doe-chase mode. This is particularly true down in the Texas Big Bend country.

I've not hunted the Panhandle country; the behavior might be somewhat different there.

Anyhow, when you see a big-bodied buck with heavy beams and anywhere above ten points, he's getting toward bragging size.

Art
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