Cutting Horns?

Two much testosterone in a small area. Too much diversity in age and if you got any does nearby it will certainly spell tragedy. However darting bucks is touchy. When you shoot one you have to keep the others away or they will want to kill him as he becomes sedated. Then you will have to put them in a recovery pen.Just my 2 cents-Jason

Wow thats a situation...I would get the horns off for sure or you can bank on someone getting killed.I have never heard of the to much darting affecting antler growth. If i was in your shoes with no chute to use i would first not feed them grain for a few days and then i would get two people with two dart guns and then i would feed them to get them down to the feeder and i would knock down the oldest ones first while the yearlings went to the grain.Either way you will have to keep the ones you cut away from the rest of them untill they get their feet back under them. Good luck!

Yea, I think it would also be a good idea to cut their antlers. I usually dart the most difficult ones first and work my way down to the more tame ones. I go in the pen with my dart gun and I dart 1 deer then walk away and let him lay down and every 5 min or so I come back and dart another one. I think with ten deer you will have to dart a few deer at a time and let them settle down. I would wait to dart multiple deer when you get to the calmer deer. I do the darting myself cause my deer are use to me and when I have had someone else help me it seems to spook them more. This works for me and I haven't had any bucks try to hurt the darted ones yet, that might be cause the more aggressive ones are usually the older ones and I dart them first. I don't think darting the deer will hurt antler development unless they get really stressed out and stay stressed after the darting. I wish you good luck.

I have 13 yearlings in the same pen (about an acre also) with antlers on, no trouble. I mixed two pens of would-be shooters two weeks ago. They range in age from 2-3 years. Yes, they fought for about 30 minutes, but as soon as they had the pecking order established, no trouble.

Phil you might have a whole different group of deer in there when they start smelling the girls of fall...lol

I agree with Jason. If you are going to cut them off, then you need to do all of them at the same time. In order from the most aggressive to the least aggressive. If you don't do them all at the same time, the bucks with the racks will take any chance they get for a cheap stab at the sedated staggering bucks.



We usually cut them as soon as they loose velvet. But now it is October and they are getting more aggressive. The longer you wait, the worse it is going to get.



I hope my advice helps.

Man it will be tough to dart 10 bucks at the same time in a one acre pen.Ya gotta do what ya gotta do but if it was me i would do them in groups oldest to youngest.I know my young ones are kinda on the dumb side and would kinda be more curious than aggressive but the older ones will have at it on a moments notice. Good luck either way you decide!

Big8 said:

Hello Everyone,



We have a 10 bucks in one pen a little over an acre. 7, 1 1/2 year olds, 2, 2 1/2 year olds, and 1, 3 1/2 year old. My question is, should we cut their horns off, or can we leave them on? We don't have a handling facility to run them through so our only choice is to dart them. The cost for darting is starting to increase, and were told that darting every year will hurt antler development.



Thank you all in advance for your advice, and opions.

Click to expand...

If it was me, I would take them all off and would not think twice about it. 1 1/2 year olds in and of themselves are plenty capable of being aggressive enough to kill another, and with that mix of ages...playground for disaster! I lost a good 2 year old last year when he got sick and ''showed'' it. They attacked him and killed him, just like they will when they are going down from tranq or coming back. You might get lucky not sawing them off on occassion, but if you have deer long enough, there is a day coming where you will wish you had always cut them off...it's not whether they will kill one another...it's when.

As you have already been advised, once you dart one you need to keep an eye on him until he is all the way down to make sure the others don't slam him. I have even seen them get slammed once they're down, but this isn't near as likely to happen as prior to them going down. And I've seen 1 1/2 year olds attack 3 year olds as they are going down, so don't drop your guard there just because you think they're ''kids''.

I would also add here to not scrimp on your dosage of tranq. When tranqing antlered bucks with other antlered bucks, the quicker they go down the better. Don't try to save that 1/2cc.

Good luck and pray before you start!

having never cut my bucks in the last few years ,i will say i have no trouble with 6-8 bucks of the same age in a pen of 1 acre or more, but when you mix ages, cutting antlers is probably a good idea. If the majority on here are saying to cut then i would say go ahead and just cut them so you dont have to worry about losing a couple.

I just darted around 50 head of bucks to tb/bruc. test and to cut antlers. We had great luck taking them off feed for 24 hours and water for 8 hours. I would knock down 5-8 at a time. Seemed to work for me. By the way, I used BAM for the first time and it is an AWESOME product. I wont use anything else. The bucks were down in 7-8 minutes and all but one was standing at the feeders within 10 minutes of reversal. The one that stayed down was down for 20 minutes until I gave him a half dose more reversal. He was at the feeder within 5 minutes. My vet couldn't believe how well it works and said she will not recommend anything else but BAM from now on.



Big 8, do yourself and your bucks a favor and cut them off. SOON... Good luck

Four Seasons Whitetails said:

Phil you might have a whole different group of deer in there when they start smelling the girls of fall...lol

Click to expand...

No, this is how I always do it...the only time I ever had trouble was when I had onlyh one fence between bucks-hard lesson learned.

Big 8, I would get those bucks cut soon. I have never seen where darting the bucks hurt antler development. Nothing hurts antler development more than dead deer.

Not if you are going to sell them no!!! Best thing to do is try and get them sold asap before hard horn and then get them to their new home.But for this year get those horns off asap or you will have a few less when it comes time to sell next year!!

Big8 said:

Thanks for all the advise. I understand the danger to the deer by not cutting them this year, but next year we will be selling theses bucks. Is there something I can do to prevent this from happening aside from putting them all in their own pen?

Click to expand...

Like Mike said, it's best to get them sold as quickly as possible in the fall.

But not only for the prevention of death, but for the prevention of lost inches. During their sparring matches they will knock off tines, tine tips, and stickers, all of which are inches, and inches are money.

Generally speaking, you're pretty safe from a loss due to a fight until Oct 25 gets here. That's before any doe comes into heat in your and my area. But remember, I said ''generally speaking''.

The majority of the deaths in my pens due to fighting have occurred the 2nd week of November.

It is also my suspicion, that often it isn't either one of the 2 combatents in the fight that actually deliver the blow that kills the other. It's one of the bucks on the sideline that gets all revved up from the action and steps in and blind-sides one of them.

I have 36 antlered bucks ranging in age from 1 to 5. I haven't taken horns off any of them yet cause I'm trying to sell out. I won't get to(remember I said 'to') nervous about their horns still being on until November gets here, especially due to the fact that ALL does will be gone from the premise in just a few more days, which by the way weighs in to the 'measure'(remember I said 'measure') of concern for the safety of your bucks - Where are your does? How close are they to your bucks? Are they in the adjacent pen? Are they on the upwind side of your prevailing winds from your bucks, or on the downwind side?

I have just shared with you some of my experiences in hopes of helping you. My intention is/was not to get you to drop your guard on your situation. In the deer farming business, it is ALWAYS better to error on the side of caution.

Good luck!

Now - Is anyone interested in 36 antlered deer and 10 buck fawns or know somebody who is? Any reasonable offer will be considered! They are in Illinois and not tested - 9 years CWD certified.