Which Deer Has the Biggest Antlers? Find Out Here (2024)

FAQs

Which Deer Has the Biggest Antlers? Find Out Here? ›

Unsurprisingly, the largest antlers are found on the largest deer species - moose! Other North American animals with antlers include mule deer and caribou.

The Irish elk stood about 2 m (6 ft 7 in) tall at the shoulders, and had large palmate (flat and broad) antlers, the largest known of any known deer, with the largest specimens reaching over 3.5 m (11 ft) from tip to tip (though it is rare for specimens to exceed 3 metres (9.8 ft) across) and 40 kg (88 lb) in weight.

The biggest rack ever measured was 333 ⅞ on a deer in Missouri, but that was a pickup, or found deer, not one shot by a hunter. Tucker's kill is the “deer story of 2016 — and maybe the deer story of the decade,” Field & Stream proclaimed.

The Kansas King. The Kansas King delivered multiple sets of shed antlers for the world to see, and this is the biggest. In the early 1990s this set was picked up in southwestern Kansas, and six tines measure over 12 inches long. The score (with estimated spread) is about 217 inches.

Doug Laird's World Record. Central Missouri deer hunter Doug Laird is a passionate deer hunter, and has been for a long time. In 2014, he accomplished something no other hunter has ever done — tag an antlered doe that scores over 200 inches.

If you look at a graph of average antler size of white-‐tailed deer at different ages, it is clear antler size increases until 5 years of age. Average antler size then remains relatively constant, suggesting antler size does not change much after a buck reaches 5 years old.

After seven decades, Wisconsin continues to reign supreme for the number of Boone and Crockett whitetail entries. The state has 125 entries, with 81 typical and 44 non-typical deer entering the book between 2020-2022.

The following slide shows two extreme outliers at the Faith Ranch: a 50 point deformed buck and the 236 I shot in 1990. These images provide a visual to describe outliers on the bell curve of antler scores.

Lenander Jr. killed a colossal buck while hunting near the shores of Lake Superior in the legendary Minnesota Arrow Head Region. This deer pulled the scale to an incredible 402 pounds dressed weight. Wildlife officials have long held the estimate on this buck at 511 pounds live weight.

Most of the time, whitetail sheds, and other big game shed antlers, are sold by the pound, though. That number can range from $2-15, sometimes more. The lower end consists of older, whiter, chalkier sheds. The top-end are pristine, brown, unblemished sheds.

What are antlers that don't fall off? ›

Elk and mule deer grow new, larger antlers each year until they reach their prime age of about 6-8 years old, at which point their antlers are no longer shed and reach their maximum size.

Male cervids have two soft spots on their skulls called pedicles. In the spring or early summer, two nubs form at the pedicles and are covered in a sensitive type of skin called velvet. The velvet is packed with blood vessels that rapidly bring blood, oxygen, and nutrients that the antlers need for growth.

With this method you can quickly determine that a buck with two standing normal points per side is a 4x4 or 8-pointer, and with three standing points per side he is a 5x5 or 10-pointer, and so on, with the exception of Coues' whitetail.

A deer is a male or female animal. A hind specifically refers to the female of the red deer (over 2 years old) and a doe for the female of any other deer. Male deer, are called stags (particularly those with the largest antlers) or bucks.

“It doesn't happen very often in the wild because it takes some type of hormonal imbalance or injury to the deer to cause that hormonal imbalance, so it's rare in nature,” Adams told MeatEater. When this does occur, the antlers are usually small, skinny, unbranched, or barely discernible from the crown of the head.

Unsurprisingly, the largest antlers are found on the largest deer species - moose! Other North American animals with antlers include mule deer and caribou. Caribou, also known as reindeer, are the only species where both males and females have antlers.

The Irish Elk, Megaloceros, is misnamed, for it is neither exclusively Irish nor is it an elk. It is a giant extinct deer, the largest deer species ever, that stood up to seven feet at the shoulder (2.1 meters), with antlers spanning up to 12 feet (3.65 meters).

The size and formation of antlers vary widely among deer in general. Antler growth depends on an individual deer's access to quality nutrition, age and genetics. However, factors such as date of birth and condition of the mother can affect antler development.