What forms seem to fit deer well in the Arkansas area. I currently have some forms that seem better suited to larger northern deer. Thanks.
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The entry is "A Problem Size". It's all there if you'll just look. Arkansas deer aren't any different from those that live in Missouri or Oklahoma, Louisanna, or Texas except some are bigger and some are smaller.
Thats in the deer category.
Yes, George they are a bit different. The deer out of the Ozarks, seldom rich 200 lbs and never have the hair of the northern deer, never have the big blocky head of grain feed deer, and the antlers seldom get to 20 inch spread.
Having lived in Kansas for five years, I can tell you with a 100% acurate rate, I have never seen a deer from Kansas that look like any deer from Arkansas and vice-versa.
Now to answer Charlea, a lot of taxidermist around the state like Ben Mears forms, the face of the look much like the Arkansas deer.
Delta deer or Hill strain, they are close as you will find.
I think I said my piece in that first posting. Old skinny deer have long faces, big young deer look "blocky" and wide. Nutrition and longevity always play into this and I'll bet the house, no deer south of Missouri ever looks as big and as blocky as a mature Canadian. Been there, got the T shirt.
I am not trying to offend you...but what deer in Arkansas have you been looking at? I do agree that there are differences in face shapes, etc., but my problem was when you said that they seldom get over a 20" spread. I have 3 bucks, and the rest of my family probably has at least 10 wall hangers that are above a 20" inside spread! And the sad part is... we do not get the big bucks, but I have mounted many (hill and bottoms) deer with above a 20" spread! I live in NE Arkansas and I can truley say that we do have large spreads here!
Yes the delta deer can get bigger, you also have to admit that the deer seasons where you are at have been heavily restricted for many years. Plus they have alot of wheat, soybeans, corn to browse on.
But the deer in Arkansas are nothing like the big block headed, large bodied deer from the grain belt and colder climates.
Now how many deer over 20 inch spread are killed verse the numbers of smaller bucks in the state?
Finally after years of harping at the higher powers, they did enact the point restrictions.
I think it was 1978 or so when I sat a a check station with Cartwright and expressed what I thought would make the deer harvest better (quality) and loq and behold damn near 20 years later he discovered the same thing I had told him.
But back to the Generally smaller southern buck, the farther south you go the smaller the deer get. Yes there are many subspecies of the whitetail deer.
You want to see big deer and tons of them? Go to mid Kansas during the modern firearm deer season and go to locker plants! Man will that wake ya up.
Thanks for all the advice.