I seen a young buck last night that had a third main beam. My question is this something he will just have this year or will he continue to grow it from year to year?

he's a freak! no way to know for sure, except wait til next year.

dont believe you, need a pic for proof.

X3

I had one last year with a third main beam and this year he is a slick 10 point. No third beam.

I am in the other camp. I had one last year with a small third main beam and this year it grew and has one point on it. I will see if I can get photobucket to work with me.

There he is or at least as good as I could get with a cell phone and binos

Here is this buck last year. Third main beam with no points on it:


This is the same buck during 2013:



And the small buck in the third picture is a dead man walking btw

That is very similar to the young buck only the extra beam is on the other side and has 4 points instead of 5 on the regular side.

I have been watching this buck for a little while. I believe he was 3.5 last year, and that was the first year for him to have the third main beam. The two years before that he had a similar shaped narrow rack but no indication of the third main beam. He is a protein hog, but I don't know if he injured that pedicle or what. He is getting a pass from me for one more year and I sure hope the neighbors don't drop the hammer on him. Body-wise, he has always been much bigger than most, but until this year he wasn't legal under ARs.

the real question is which one do you use to measure 13 inches?

I don't honestly know which one to use to measure. I am on MLD 2 so we are exempt but if I wasn't I was planning on measuring the furthest outside beam. He is wily every year so maybe he will elude the neighbors and live one more season.

IME I have only seen a handful of bucks that grew and actual mainbeam one year, grow it again the next year. Most "extra" beams are a result of injury and not genetics.

well if it helps, I had a buck with 2 main beams a couple of years ago, GW told me as long as one of the beams made 13" I would be good by him... of course who knows which GW youu are going to be stopped by...

This was from 09 ?I believe

another view

Interesting pictures for sure. Were you able to see him the next year to see if he reverted back to normal? Also looks like that deer has a different antler base for the third beam. The one we have running around appears to have a shared base between two of the main beams.

no that is on a really small place, never really hunted it and after those pics I dont think I refilled it until this past year... I will that feeder running this weekend and see what I can get coming to it.

the place is only 17 acres so I dont hunt it too often.

We have seen several at our place with a third main beam. Game warder told us several years ago there were a lot in our are due to a genetic defect

Neat looking

Buddy of mine just found this guy coming into his feeder...I've never heard of it until I saw this thread.....his uncle killed this one with 4 main beams.

Weird.

Never know what they will do year to year...too many factors to consider...

Cool looking rack!!!