RACK RESEARCH
RACK RESEARCH
Understanding Antlers
The search for the “ perfect ” rack rests high among all hunters . But variances can also comprise a trophy .
T he young hunter had a grinning smile as he handed me the antlers from the buck he harvested with his bow . The antlers were covered in velvet with a couple of odd tines . The time of 60 days had passed , so it was ready to be officially scored for the Pope and Young Record Book .
As I started measuring this great trophy , his questions started coming , ‘ What causes the non-typical points ?’, ‘ What makes the antlers grow so fast ?’, ‘ When does the velvet fall off ?’, ‘ What makes deer shed their antlers ?’ and many others .
On pondering his questions , I thought the best way to answer this is to look at what antlers are made of and how they grow from ‘ Start to Finish ’.
One of the most sought-after materials for hunters and outdoorsmen are antlers and horns of their favorite big game animal . Whether we harvest the animal or find shed antlers , they are prized possessions and great memories of the outdoors .
Antlers are from those species as elk , deer , moose and caribou ( Cervidae family ) while horns are found on goats , sheep , pronghorn and bison ( Bovidae family ). Although these seem to be the same type of head gear they are quite different . Let ’ s take a closer look : Horns are from those species mentioned earlier , goats , sheep , pronghorns and bison ( and cattle ). The horns are made of carotene and hair ( sort of like fingernails ) and have an interior boney structure extruding from the skull on which the ‘ horn ’ grows outward from . Both males and females will grow them . The horns are not shed like antlers , although pronghorn do drop their sheaths every year . If a horn becomes damaged , let ’ s say a bighorn sheep chipping out part of their horn or breaking tips due to fighting , they will remain that way for the life of the animal .
Antlers on the other hand , are from members of the deer family . These include deer , elk , moose and caribou . While horns are made of carotene and hair , antlers are made from true bone and are shed every year . Only males grow antlers , with the exception of caribou , which females will grow small antlers . If an antler is broken or is damaged during the velvet stage , they can regrow new , normal antlers the next year .
Antlers are very fascinating and are one of the fastest growing materials known and are actually bones that exist outside the body . They can grow up to a quarter inch per day and grow up to 1 ” per day on large elk and caribou . When we think about it , antlers are amazing . They start as a fuzzy , velvet skin growth , grow very rapidly , lose the velvet , become hard antlers and in a few months , they fall off ! And next year , do it all again !
Here in the Dakotas , fawns are born primarily in early to mid- June . A few months after the buck ’ s birth , antlers start to develop due to increasing testosterone , growing from the tips , outside-in , developing a soft , fuzzy outer skin coating that we call velvet . This velvet is very vascular with blood cells that carry the nutrients to the antlers . This is coupled with nerve endings that energize rapid growth of the cartilage that , as the season goes on , is slowly replaced by bone material . Antlers take approximately 100 days to grow completely .
During this time of year , deer are starting to graze or browse heavily , putting back on the weight they have lost over the prior winter . Bucks
by Wayne Muth
especially need large quantities of nutrition to build not only their body weight , but to grow their headgear .
Calcium and phosphorus are main nutrients that are required to develop and grow antlers . These nutrients are needed in such great quantities that grazing and browsing alone cannot supply it . Researchers have found that due to the great need of these nutrients , calcium is taken from other bones in their body to supplement the antler growth . The calcium is taken from non-weight bearing bones such as ribs and shoulder blades causing the deer to go into an osteoporotic state or a weakening of the bone due to loss of calcium . The deer family is one of the only animals known that go through this process . These bones are replenished to a normal state as the season progresses .
Nutritional needs are not only important during spring and summer , but also important after the rut . If a buck can build his nutrition values to replenish the body , store nutrition and build body weight after the rut , it will greatly contribute to good spring antler development .
As the summer progresses , the bucks will continue to put on weight and grow antler material at a very fast rate . During this period of antler
Page 60 , Dakota Country , September 2024 www . dakotacountrymagazine . com