Worst season ever for busted racks. Several with broke tines and 3 with main beams almost completely gone. Even had a nice 8 point last week that had his G2 broke off early in the season and now he shows up with his main beam broke about 4 inches from his head. I'll bet that 40% of our bucks this season have at least one or two tines broke. All most all of the are 2-3 year olds also. I`m retired and spend a lot of time in the blind and have yet to see a buck square off with another one. I think a lot of these kinds of fights happen at night.

At night during a full moon seems to be a big fight night for mine. I've got lots of broken horns also.

1. They do it to themselves a lot, fighting trees and such. The more aggressive the deer, the more likely they break something. Had one VERY aggressive buck this year, he broke both browtines.
2. Really reduced nutrition during the drought the last two years, can hurt antler strength.
3. The better your buck/doe ratio and higher your buck density, the more they fight.