Proghorn Horn Growth

[Bird Dog]

Eli or anyone do you know the respective horn growth rate on an average goat per year? How long does the horn develope and grow each season? How old is a mature Boone & Crooket buck? I have heard that about 5 years they are topped out is this true?

 

I have found a few antelpe sheaths out calling coyotes in February. I felt luck to find them considering I thought a coyote would love to chew on that mass of hair. As I sit here with 17 points I was just thinking about how unique this animal is and thought this could provide some lucky tag holders something to look forward to.

[EliGrimmett]

Like all things it varies a lot from buck to buck. From their 1st to 2nd year their horns will grow the most. They'll go from being 6 inches long and thin with no prongs to looking like a normal antelope. When they're 2 years old (2 3/4 or whatever the exact number is) they can score up to 85 inches (maybe a bit bigger even). From year 2 to year 3 will be their next largest growth cycle. They'll put on anywhere from 4 to 10 inches during this phase depending on weather, genetics, etc. From years 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 is where anything can happen. Some bucks will continue to get bigger while others may start to regress. Again, this all depends on each particular bucks genetics, feed, and weather. Some will even continue to remain large into their 6th, 7th, and 8th years depending again on the conditions and genetics. However, most will start regressing during years 6 and beyond.

 

Most B&C bucks will be between 3 and 5 years old.

 

Typically, when you see a really big antelope, that's probably as big as the buck is ever going to be. Outfitters we know are always trying to "save" bucks for future years and then when that future year comes around the buck they saved is either smaller or was killed by another hunter. Rarely is the buck ever bigger, because when you find an 87 inch buck it's almost always at least a 3 year old and sometimes a 4 or 5 year old. Once they hit those ages there's no way to tell if they're going to have the genetics to get larger and there's never a way to know how the weather and feed will change.

 

Sheaths are rare to find in most areas but my Dad and I have probably found close to 100 of them over the years. We save the bigger ones.

[SirRoyal]

Hey Eli , Nice to hear from you. Thanks for the good info as usual!!!!

[Bird Dog]

Eli, thank you for the response. This is basically what I have heard and seen. I appreciate you comments.

[Hornhunter247]

That's pretty cool to know, I guess I just assumed they were like deer.

[trophyhnter]

Interesting stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[synper100]

thanks eli

[plang00]

Sounds like genetics and weather are key to hitting a good antelope unit.....Genetics being the constant and weather being the variable......wish I had another goat tag. Good luck to all that do.

[EliGrimmett]

A lot of times weather isn't what you think when it comes to antelope. For instance, two of the worst droughts in 100 years were in 2002 in Arizona and 2011 in New Mexico. We guided to the World's Record in 2002 and then a buck that would have easily broken it in 2011 if it didn't break the horn tip. In 2011 the buck, according to the rancher, was feeding on extremely high protein food that the antelope in that area don't normally eat, but because the normal feed was gone because of the lack of rain the pronghorn had no choice but to eat the higher protein feed. Droughts affect fawn survival and health a lot but sometimes may not affect horn growth on bucks in certain areas.

[StickFlicker]

I agree completely with Eli. Drought years are often when I find the biggest bucks. I have always felt it was because it forces the antelope to eat different things (that might cause their horns to grow larger) than the lush food they might prefer to eat in a wet year. However, Eli's dad seemed to have a different theorey, as I recall. I recall it being his belief that the plants grow faster in wet years, spreading the nutrients out in the plant. Eating a given amount of a plant delivered less nutrients than eating a similar amount of that same plant if it had grown slower in a drought year. I'm not sure which is correct, or if both might be factors?

[EliGrimmett]

Now I'm going to have research some more. I had forgotten about that theory.

 

From what the New Mexico rancher told us about the different types of feed being more prevelant in drought years I kind of lean that direction. Mostly because he got to witness the antelope migrate to only those areas with that type of feed during the driest part of the year and then migrate back to their normal range when it did rain a little. It made sense at the time when he was explaining it. I wish I could remember the types of feed he was telling us had the most protein and were thick during the drought. I think he said they had 15-20% protein (I'm guessing?) I remember there being 3 distinct types that he noticed the antelope eating. Of course this could just be something that happens in only this particular region of antelope country. Maybe in other areas without these types of feed something completely different happens.

 

Another theory offered up to me by David E. Brown is that of antelope using their horns as a way to dissipate heat. Here's a quote from an article I found by doing a quick google search about antlers:

 

http://www.rae.org/pdf/antlers.pdf

 

"For this reason, a hooved animal can dissipate much body heat by regulating the amount of blood passing through its antlers. The antler has a large surface area in relation to the volume of blood passing through it. Like a radiator, blood flowing through an antler can dissipate heat rapidly."

 

Brown's theory was very similar to this, but for pronghorn. At one time he was trying to gather as many trophy pronghorn as he could find south of the border in order to see if the horns were longer if you moved into even more arid climates. I have no idea if anything came of this research - I remember he was having a very hard time finding bucks taken in Mexico.

 

Whatever is happening, it sure does seem to be that the very largest antelope grow during the driest years. In 2002, when Dr. Meyer killed his World's Record buck in 13B, we had located 2 other bucks we thought would break the World's Record, and a third buck that was very close. That's 4 bucks pushing the 95" mark on the same year - a year that I was told was one of the worst drought years in the last 100 in Arizona. That can't be a coincidence, can it?