This respectable buck may actually have the genes for much larger antlers. Photo courtesy of Larry Downey

When you hear news that a big buck has been killed, you can bet someone will say, “I hope he got to spread his genes.” I hope so too, but large antlers are not a predictor of breeding dominance. Sometimes a smaller antlered deer is an aggressive, energetic and relentless little guy who will breed more than his fair share. But don’t underestimate him based on small horns. He may have genetics for large horns.

How can that be? How can a buck with small horns carry genes for big horns? It’s simple. He is young. And his horns indicate his youth, his mother’s health when she carried him, and the quality of the habitat he lives in. A buck does not show the crown he can grow until he has finished growing his body. In other words, his horns do not reflect his full maturity until his skeleton reaches full maturity, at about age 5½.

Here in northern Pennsylvania and southern New York, few bucks truly mature, so let’s consider a 4½-year-old buck. He has gone through four heat seasons, starting when he was 1½ years old. His first antlers were unimpressive, and if you looked out the window and saw him in your garden, you would never say, “I hope he gets to spread his genes.”

Year by year he replaced his horns with a larger set. When he turned 4½ years old, he got the attention of everyone who saw him, and that’s when someone commented on his horn genetics. No one thought that even when he was a young buck with immature horns he spread genes for big horns.

We think of bucks with big horns as the dominant breeders, but horn size is not as important to successful breeding as we might think. A deer may be genetically gifted for having a large body, but not genetically gifted for antler size. Another may be genetically gifted for horn size, but is a body-sized pipsqueak.

In 2015 I shot the biggest buck of my life. He was only a 6-pointer, but he field dressed at 190 pounds. His pre-estrus live weight would have easily been north of 250 pounds. A year later, within 200 yards of the spot where I killed the 2015 buck, I shot a mature eight-point with a rack that was heavier, wider and had longer sticks. He weighed only 117 pounds. Both had strong genetics, one for body size, the other for horn size. Which produced more? It is impossible to know.

A smaller, aggressive buck can have two or three times as many broods as a larger buck that is solitary. A big buck may be like a tuba player in the band who is bigger and stronger than anyone else on the football team, but he likes playing the tuba more than he likes hitting people and getting hit on the gridiron.

Some bucks are like that — big and strong, but risky. They’d rather avoid a fight, even if it means they won’t compete sexually. Some bucks are reclusive, keep a limited home range and do not venture far to breed. Even if they have record antlers, they don’t necessarily contribute much to the gene pool. A buck’s large horns do not mean that all animals are interested in feeding his offspring. If you look at does during the rut, they are not after money with impressive headgear. More likely they act like they are trying to avoid all money.

Bucks are like people. By the time you were in ninth grade, some of your classmates were already shaving coarse whiskers. Others were shy and rarely said a word. Others were skinny kids or overweight and were targets of class bullies. Later they developed a muscular physique. The tallest kid in ninth grade may be below average as a senior.

As people mature, they change. Physically, what a child was in junior high or middle school had little to do with what he became. It’s like that with deer too. We don’t get to see a buck’s antler size potential until he shows us, and that comes at maturity.

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When “The Everyday Hunter” isn’t hunting, he’s thinking about hunting, talking about hunting, dreaming about hunting, writing about hunting, or wishing he was hunting. If you want to tell Steve exactly where your favorite hunting spot is, contact him through his website, www.EverydayHunter.com. He writes for top outdoor magazines and won the 2015, 2018 and 2023 national “Pinnacle Award” for outdoor writing.