Antler color

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Grasshopper
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Antler color

Unread postby Grasshopper » Mon Aug 08, 2016 2:21 pm

I'm a new to beast mode, just reading up on these buck beds. Anyway I started thinking about whether antler color is a reliable source for narrowing down bed locations. I've always heard a whiter rack beds more in the open as opposed to a dark rack may bed in hemlocks or etc. What kind of feedback do you have?

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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Bigburner » Tue Aug 09, 2016 7:39 am

I can tell you a marsh buck that spends his time running through the phrag or cattails the majority of the year has the whitest polished rack you've ever seen. mostly from having contact with the reeds from walking down trails, but also from having more of an open exposure to the sun and getting bleached. We have allot of loblolly pine where I hunt and they deer rub those quite profusely and the pitch get in the bases and collects allot of dirt and they get dark but that just a function of them rubbing on the pines it doesn't means he beds there. but I guess you could use it as some sort of clue but that would be awful vague if the buck moved around allot do to pressure or wind direction, food source or general travel pattern. A buck starts rubbing in September and will do so until he drops for the season and that time frame could represent allot of different bedding preferences do to allot of different factors. I would just focus on finding and learning how a buck beds and why and maybe if you got some trail cam pics of a particular buck in daylight you could maybe differentiate but even then that would be pretty tough. I'd have a hard time wanting to focus on something that general, plus if I find the sign I like to see (tall rubs, big tracks, big poops, a large bed, a shed) I just want to at least see the buck that made it and I would call that a win in allot of cases. You may run into a situation where that could be a puzzle piece to you. I wouldn't be surprised if someone on here has used a clue like that to his advantage. I always keep and open mind but I personally have not used that as a clue to where a buck was bedded generally maps dictate that for me.
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Hawthorne
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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Hawthorne » Tue Aug 09, 2016 8:40 am

The county most of my hunting is 80% open farmland. The bucks have white racks. In the northern forested areas they are darker by comparison. Could be the sun light or the northern deer rub more pine and spruce and live in the dense swamps with no sunlight. Like big burner said could be from them walking in corn that polishes their racks.

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Grasshopper
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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Grasshopper » Tue Aug 09, 2016 2:11 pm

Like you had mentioned Big Burner another piece of the puzzle. The scenario I thought of was maybe spotlighting a good buck or a pic on a food source, and then seeing that dark rack and thinking I knew I should have scouted here more. Then it dawns on you while mapping it out that the north point of the ridge is thick with hemlocks. Good chance he is spending time there. That is if there's any truth in antler color and Sun exposure. Here in Pa you have a variety of antler color. More light racks in farm hills and darker in forested ridges, but I don't know if it's a genetic trait or the result of bedding choices. Or bedding choices are a genetic trait? I'd imagine some of the fellows here with some known bed locations can say yes I shot white racks from more Sun exposed locations or nope the darkest racked buck I killed was bedding in sunny cattails

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Zona
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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Zona » Fri Aug 12, 2016 1:56 pm

I read an article a while ago a bucks antler color was the result of the chemical reaction between the amount of oxidized blood and the sap from the plant material it uses while shedding velvet. Around here we have light and dark colored antlers in the same habitat.

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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Hatchetman » Mon Aug 22, 2016 1:13 pm

Grasshopper wrote:I'm a new to beast mode, just reading up on these buck beds. Anyway I started thinking about whether antler color is a reliable source for narrowing down bed locations. I've always heard a whiter rack beds more in the open as opposed to a dark rack may bed in hemlocks or etc. What kind of feedback do you have?

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I believe this^^^^^ to be true.

I justify my conclusion by observing any bucks kept in a open pen, their racks all look like chalk from the sunlight.
Open an Outdoorlife magazine and most times their big buck pictures look the same. BONE white,captive deer pics.

Genetics and feed have nothing to do with it IMO.

Neither does what they rub on other than the natural variance of staining that occurs from the base up to the G1 or G2. on most bucks

Bucks don't rub their entire antlers evenly either and that's exactly what they'd have to do to get a uniform dark antler like a lot of big woods bucks.

There is other factors I think exist but can't prove.
I have a hunch the first week or so immediately after shedding dictates somewhat the tint of a bucks rack (time spent in the shade) (length of time the dried blood sits on the rack before its washed or worn off) stuff like that.

I would think if a deer farmer kept a buck in a building, in very low light ,and out of the rain for a month or so immediately after shedding ,he'd be very black racked.
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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Bowhunting Brian » Mon Aug 22, 2016 1:36 pm

Zona wrote:I read an article a while ago a bucks antler color was the result of the chemical reaction between the amount of oxidized blood and the sap from the plant material it uses while shedding velvet. Around here we have light and dark colored antlers in the same habitat.

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I agree with this. Penned animals rub on posts and not trees with sap. That's why their antlers are always real light in color. Individual deer tend to rub the same type of trees, so that's why you can see light and dark antlered deer in the same areas.

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Buckshot20
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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Buckshot20 » Mon Aug 22, 2016 1:38 pm

Sunlight I believe has the most impact. The deer killed in the big swamps down here have black racks. The ones killed in the palmetto flats are light colored.

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Re: Antler color

Unread postby blizzardhunter » Wed Aug 24, 2016 2:31 pm

Very interesting. I have seen racks from super dark to pasty white. I had a buck on camera last year with a chocolate rack. I always assumed genetics but could mean he rubs very little or stays more in thicker cover. However, most bucks in the area had an inbetween coloring using the same area. Also the area is almost solid mature timber. ????

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Re: Antler color

Unread postby PK_ » Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:09 pm

I think sunlight could have an impact. But I have seen a lot of bucks with dark racks where there tips are white, so there has to be other factors imo.

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Re: Antler color

Unread postby Bowhunting Brian » Thu Aug 25, 2016 2:36 am

All antlers will be light naturally. They get dark from something that stained them.

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Re: Antler color

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Tue Oct 04, 2016 3:47 pm

Dr Grant Woods has an episode on growing deer tv that was released last year, i think, that showed a 10 yr study that dark rack bucks are darker due to lack of minerals. White rack bucks are do to deer that get more minerals. That study also showed the growing diffrence between mississippi delta big buck and alabama small rack pine bucks and the diffrence was due to lack of minerals in the ground and other sources They studied 3 sets of bucks from fork horns to 5 year olds in both places( mississippi delta rich bottoms and alabama pine ground )and deer that were brought from the other places did the same as the other deer. Deer from alabama grew just as good as the mississippi deer (deer with So called poor genetics) and deer with from mississippi deer in that where in alabama did the same deer from there. (These were deer that were supose to have good genetics). These where pen studied deer but they tried to feed like it was in the wild or what food sources they had and tried to keep each deer controled the same as the next or the 10 year span! Ill have to try to find what episode that was and try to link it! Like you guys ive heard so much stuff i dont know what to believe. But that made the most sence to me.

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