Are you sure it is a mineral deficiency and not rut sparring or brush beating breaking the antlers? I saw what looked like a huge 7x7 bull in New Mexico after the rut, and then I got closer and saw that he was a 3x7, having points broken off all along one one side. He was still play sparring with a 5x5 that was hanging with him, and this was in November. The 6x6 bull I took in the same general area had the tips broken off half the points on his left side.
- Thread starter huntducks
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Orygun
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It was a mineral deficiency. When I checked in my cow, they took a tooth, a piece of the liver, they had me bag the intestines (for weighing), I had to collect the placenta for them. They took an antler sample off our buddy's bull. The tule elk evolved on the other side of the Sierras and at the time DFG thought that the low amounts of certain minerals in the Owens Valley was affecting the antler development. The biologist that checked my cow had himself got a bull a few years before. He had the head on a 5 gallon bucket while working on the animal. He said the head slipped off and the a couple of tines busted off just by hitting the concrete floor from that distance.
