Well, I just got back from filling feeders and checking cameras at our place in Val Verde County. It's our first year out there, and I didn't see or get a picture of a single deer with anything broken during the season. I have several pictures of bucks that have broken main beams and tines off since the beginning of January. I was surprised, but I guess the second rut doesn't really start until about the same time our season ends. It just seems strange to me. I've hunted Wichita County for several years and we start seeing broken horns up there the first week of Novemeber. Also, input on when the rut is completely over in Val Verde?

That's a neat post, but I wasn't asking about dropping their horns, I was referring to when do you start seeing deer with tines broken off from fighting in your particular area of the state. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

At my old place, almost every deer had broken tines by the end of November. Really a ton of pencil-horned bucks out there, but even the big ones were very, very busted up most of the time.

At my new place, almost none of the bucks were broken up.

Has to do with the doe/buck ratio. If there are more does that need to be bred than bucks that can breed them, they're less likely to fight as they can just go get a piece from another broad.

Our bucks did not seem to get into the initial rut like they did the year before. We saw broken antlers later in the season and saw some this past weekend just like you did. I think they rutted later, so the competition did not heat up for rutting action until later. Everything that happened at our lease seemed to be late this past season.

I have seen it as early as late October (this year) and as late as January (2013). The January break really surprised me, being that both 1st and 2nd rut were over by then. He was a big 4.5yo 8-pt. Broken tines and a few new scars to boot. I'd have loved to see the buck that thrashed him.

This is the first time I have ever seen anything break as late as January, had a 5.5-6.5 year old 140 class buck show up with a broken G3 and brow tine around late January. plus another nice 10 point with a beam broken off around the same time.

It really depends on a lot of factors. But it seems like the older the age structure is the more likely you will see some antler breakage earlier IME. Here is a buck that I first started seeing TC pics of with him broken on 10-7-2013. Two more bucks had broken antlers within the next 4 weeks. Had a couple of more by mid-December show up.

Thanks for all the comments fellas.