I don't know anything about deer raised like that, but I was wondering how long do they live? Do their antlers get larger every year? What would happen if you suddenly turned him out with no supplemental feeding? Could he top a doe with a heavy head like that or is all A. I.?

Thanks ranchman. Is there that big a market for deer like that?

The whole thing is sad really. I remember when a 200" deer was a monster. Now we hear about 350"-500" deer and its like "No big Deal"! You look at that deer and he looks deformed in his face on his right side like that dude on The Goonies. I'm all for feeding your deer to help the over all health of the herd but.....thats taking the whole thing way too far. I hope for the day when the deer breeding business ends up like the bucking bull business or the ostrich/emu business.

a 160 still IS a big deer....

there are bigger deer out there, but put your hands on a 160 or 170, and it's still impressive.

I'm all for selective management, and some forms of breeding, but when you get so far out of the realm of what a whitetail was ever meant, it just doesn't make sense.

What is this Oxy Rack stuff? This thread is the first time I have heard of it. Does it improve antler growth? Does it harm the deer physically? How is it fed or is it only for pen raised deer?

Those deer don't even look good to me. That's far beyond ridiculous.

There length of life going to be determined on how much extra "stuff" was added into their feed that their kidneys cannot handle. Most of them get larger antlers from the 1st year to the 2nd year but not to much after that and some will get bigger every year by a little bit. If he was turned out into native pasture he would revert back to looking like a native deer with a funky set of nontypical antlers, but considerably smaller in antlers. Most bucks like that are used as A.I. sires and a few for breeding. Almost everyone is going to cut the antlers off so that the buck can move more freely. A deer like that this is tranquilized can not hold his head for many hours after he is reversed from the drugs due to the sheer mass and weight of the rack, so that is why the saw the antlers off most of the time when drawing semen. The skeletal structure and muscle mass in a bucks neck was not designed to hold up that much weight. Those 2 factors will also limit his length of life and how big his rack gets also.

I wonder how many pounds that rack weighs?