Did the drought hurt the antlers where you hunt this year? Looks like we are about done growing since I have a buck hard horned on camera. All the deer I recognize from last year seem to have regressed this year. Wondering if others are seeing the same?

Some did not but most got better with them being a year older now. The rains were timely just not as much as was needed in my area with the best rains a bit to late. There were longer periods of no rain between the few rain periods I had. I have fed protein year round for almost 6 yrs now and it gets them through the post rut and stress periods. They go to it when they need it and then do not hardly eat much at all when the conditions improve with a rain. The younger bucks(2-4 yr olds) showed the best gains so far. Age class jumps are expected in most years though. Still not seeing enough mature bucks to judge them yet.

I've seen 8 different bucks at my feeder close to the house. Only one that I know I saw last year. They look OK, nothing spectacular. They've been tearing up the alfalfa field. I should start seeing the bucks from last season soon, if they made it through. We also feed protein and they are chowing down on it.

Ours are looking good in the high fence, low fence bucks are not spectacular but we've seen a few decent ones. Still haven't seen any of the big LF deer I had on camera from last year so time will tell on that.

Our ponds are completely dry though, relying on well water for now. Hopefully we get rain soon and a lot of it.