An aquatance is raising a herd of Reds on his ranch. He uses game cams to assess his game. He supplements with protein feeders and hay in time of stress.He takes several trophis every year. All trophies have heavy antlers with 11 plus points, with at least a three point royal on the right, with a fork on the left. He started with a rather small herd and now has about 40-50 head. I suspect the gene pool is not that big. The deers, not his! If he doesn't sell them I get a chance at ome of three stags at a considerably reduced price One of these is older, probably the father of the other two. His antlers are obviously going back. He thinks the other two are 4-5yrs old, They both have normal antlers on the right with five points.(I don't know what they're called) two brow tines middle tine, and a fork at the top. the left has two brow tines, a small point and the rest is spike. I would guess both antlers on both deer are at least 30-36 inches long, but spindley. I'm looking for opinions on age and antler growth. capt david
Red stag antler growth?
- Thread starter captdavid
- Start date
deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
Nothing you’ve said can determine with any confidsnce any kind of age. Less so given the animals are being supplementary fed. Antlers are not indicative of age, coronets diameter, slope, pedicle height can all be indicators but without images this is utterly futile
deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
A classic antler should have a brow tine, bey, trey, and 3 on top forming the crown, this gives a classic 12 point head. But nature never drew a straight line and they like to vary a lot!
deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
Again, live weight isn’t a means of aging a stag either and there is so much variation, (even in a small place like the U.K.) between highland and lowland reds and respective weights.
If your stag is the father of two circa 4 year old beasts, he could be anything from 6 upwards (I’m saying that as I guess he didn’t have any competition so would have been viable from year 2, a stag in a semi farmed environment wouldn’t be “going back” I would say until it was well beyond 10 years of age, it’s probabyl more likely that he just has a poor head in genetic terms.
If your stag is the father of two circa 4 year old beasts, he could be anything from 6 upwards (I’m saying that as I guess he didn’t have any competition so would have been viable from year 2, a stag in a semi farmed environment wouldn’t be “going back” I would say until it was well beyond 10 years of age, it’s probabyl more likely that he just has a poor head in genetic terms.
Post some pictures of your friends Stags to see how they compare to the motherland gene pool....
Deerstalker .308 knows his onions when it comes to Reds....not red onions.
Tim.243
deerstalker.308
Well-Known Member
400lbs = 181kg, which as a live weight in U.K. terminology will probably yield a carcass weight of around 120-130kg give or take, fairly middle of the road in terms of size. This will fluctuate quite dramatically pre and post rut.
You can't compare park or what you call ranch stags with truely wild stags a big Highland stag won't go much over 300 lbs it live weight, 16 st 220 lbs being around the average.
Antler growth is part!y genetic but largely due to the feed available, aging by antler size alone will at very best be a guestimate
Antler growth is part!y genetic but largely due to the feed available, aging by antler size alone will at very best be a guestimate
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