Shared Blood?

[bigbendmarine]

True to form, scrape activity usually skyrockets the last week of October on my north Florida property... looked out the window yesterday as dusk approached and saw a buck I recognized cruising across my backyard... one named "Lucky" due to badly compromised left rack.



As I'm watching him cross I see motion some distance behind him... much like discussed in the thread concerning bucks traveling together as rut begins, these two were DEFINITELY together though they kept a respectable distance from one another. "Lucky" was leading the way and almost like a string was tied to the buck behind him, the second buck followed on his heels about 50 yards back.

But here's why I'm sharing... fairly excited I might have experienced a FIRST since purchasing my property 5 years ago. I hadn't seen the buck in the back before but he sure looked familiar... took me about a second, but then struck me his face / head shape looked VERY much like a buck I'd harvested a few years back!

So here's the buck that was following "Lucky"...





Now here's the buck I suspect just might be his Dad?




Few commonalities that struck me in comparing them... what first hit me was the shape of their faces. Something kind of baby-faced about them compared to their peers, though their racks are nice for our neck of the woods (the 10 point was one I named "Bo" and scored 130 net -- enough to put him in the top 25 scored bucks submitted to the Florida buck registry program in 2016, appreciating that's a score many of y'all wouldn't even consider harvesting in states blessed with better soils). Few other commonalities is that their tines are NOT all that tall though the widths on their racks are fairly nice.

Others see it or just wishful thinking on my part? Not like I'm going to try to do any DNA sample comparison or anything, but may name him "Son of Bo" if consensus is they look fairly closely related.

 

[bigbendmarine]

Additional funny thing is they are the only 2 bucks out of dozens I've seen making scrapes from the house and in spots not more than about 100 yards from one another.

Here's video of "Bo" the first time I saw him...

And here's potential "Son of Bo" recorded yesterday...

Appreciating I'm many miles away from most on the forum, anybody care to guess at their ages at the time the videos were recorded I'd be interested in hearing opinions. Got a feeling "Bo" was at least a year older at the time of filming than the buck I saw yesterday evening.

 

[roymunson]

I'm terrible at that stuff. I was more impressed with the size of deer you have when you said Florida

 

[bigbendmarine]

I'm terrible at that stuff. I was more impressed with the size of deer you have when you said Florida

Blessed as Florida goes for sure, and pretty sure it's because our soil in the immediate neighborhood is good relative to less fertile surrounding Florida soils. Haven't found time to do much spring plotting so the only supplemental feeding the local deer get is from fall planted clover that carries over well into the spring... along with a few stolen handfulls of corn a day from a "hog trap" that unfortunately draws the attention of the deer MUCH more so than the area hogs who've wisened up over time. Thankfully have neighbors who appreciate letting bucks at least reach the age of 3 before typically harvesting.

 

[Catscratch]

Maybe "son of Belle"... (it could be momma passing on those genes). To answer your question; they do look to be related somehow.

 

[davidhelmly]

bb, I'm going to guess Bo at 4.5 or possibly 5.5.and the buck you saw yesterday at 3.5.

 

[FredG]

Don't know if they share genes, but I'll bet they both prefer Duluth Trading ballroom jeans!

 

[bigbendmarine]

Maybe "son of Belle"... (it could be momma passing on those genes). To answer your question; they do look to be related somehow.

Wise point, Catscratch. As much as that point's often discussed honesty embarrassed that it wasn't my first thought.

 

[bigbendmarine]

This thread as well as a few others makes me wish I had knowledge almost surely gained by high-fence operations. For example, love to know just how wide the bone variation would be among sibling bucks born as a result of annual repeated matings of the same mother doe and father buck. Have neither the time nor inclination to ever want to fence off my small acreage but that doesn't mean I don't wish I had insight gained by tighter controlled / scientific approaches to breeding big bucks. Guessing there are likely printed journals out there to speak to such interesting questions, but haven't run across any on few forums I visit to date.

 

[Bill]

anybody care to guess at their ages at the time the videos

They look related to me. I'm not going to try and age a Florida deer. I have a natural tendency to look like an idiot. No sence in trying. :)

 

[bigbendmarine]

They look related to me. I'm not going to try and age a Florida deer. I have a natural tendency to look like an idiot. No sence in trying. :)

Bill, I'm not a betting man myself but suspect Davidhelmy is on the mark.

With the caveat I could well be exposing myself as an idiot, our 1 1/2s are pretty obvious... typically ranging from spikes to small basket 8 pointers but all with REAL thin racks. 2 1/2 year olds add a bit more rack mass / points but still aren't irresistibly tempting. Better of the 3 1/2 do get tempting, but down our way at least typically still don't have quite the base pedicle diameter / gnarly character, where as at 4 1/2 the base diameters are starting to peak and notably less smooth / more gnarly than with younger bucks.

Past 4 1/2 I haven't been able to discern much difference in our bucks until they all of a sudden look ancient / right at death's door. More than once, I've seen bucks I suspected to be 4.5 or 5.5 to not score a bit higher in subsequent years... just basically staying the same or slowly declining.

With the local deer, post 4 changes seem more behavioral... most becoming increasingly more solitary, walk to fence low spots versus spending small extra bit of energy to jump them, better avoid cameras, roam less often in daylight, etc.

Have yet to see ANY like the bloated bulls you've posted recently! Couple you posted looked like swollen-up ticks or barrels with legs!

 

[Bill]

I've got a few more pics of the ticks but haven't layed eyes on them.