j-bird
Moderator
I have noticed on my property that once a deer reaches roughly 3 1/2 years of age they seem to have busted up racks. I have 3 of my own, my boy has one and a buddy of mine took one and they all carry some sort of "battle scare". Broken tines, facial scares, torn ears or wounds of some sort and one was even blind in one eye with significant damage to the lense of that eye. I am not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. On one hand this means the older bucks are battling over does - so that means I have other bucks for them to fight with and they feel that "need" to do so. On the other hand I am concerned that this means my area may lack a truely dominent buck to keep these other "rough-housers" in check. I don't see it as much in my yonger deer, but Idon't think they "go at it" as hard either.