Ranch co-owner Connie Cullip with the buck’s antlers from 2025. Even though the buck had 30-point antlers during both 2024 and 2025, some of the points are in different locations.
A white whitetail buck named Zeus that is part of the herd on display at the Deer Ranch in St. Ignace grew another huge 30-point rack during 2025 like he did the year before when 4 ½ years old. You may recall his photo appeared on the cover of Woods-N-Water News August 2025. Interestingly, even though the antlers from the 5-year-old buck have the same number of points as they did during 2024, some of the points are in different places. Normally, the antlers grown from one year to the next by the same deer have a similar pattern.
Each of those two years, the right antler had 11 points and the left beam had 19 that are at least an inch long. The shed antlers from the last three years are on display in the ranch’s gift shop, so it’s easy to count the points. At first glance, it appears as though the right antler from 2025 has fewer tines than the year before, but that’s not the case. They are simply in different places.
A drop tine on the right side is a perfect example. During 2024, the buck grew a prominent drop tine that was forked off of the bottom of roughly the midpoint of the beam. In fact, there’s a shorter drop tine near the long one. There’s only one drop tine on the antler grown during 2025 and it’s near the base of the beam. And it’s not forked.
There were fewer points near the end of the right beam during 2025 than there had been the year before, too, but the brow tine is much longer and has more points. The brow tines on both antlers are much longer, with more points, than in 2024. The left brow tine was forked during 2024, but had four points last year, with one of those points pointing sideways. The left brow tine was more than twice as long as the year before.
The impressive antlers also appear to have more mass during 2025 than the year before. The mass of the antlers from 2025 is obvious in a photo of ranch co-owner Connie Cullip holding the antlers. She and husband Chuck own and operate the ranch.
Zeus got the genetics favoring nontypical antlers and his white coloration from his father Jack Frost. Jack Frost was also white with nontypical antlers, but his antlers weren’t as large as his son grew. Zeus has had nontypical antlers every year since he was 1 ½ years old. Zeus’ mother was a piebald doe.
Even though Zeus is white and has a pink nose and hooves, he’s not an albino. He doesn’t have the pink eyes of a true albino. He is what is called a leucistic color phase.
Zeus was born on May 29, 2020, so he is six years old this year. It will be interesting to see what he grows for antlers this year. The special buck actually grew antlers with the most points when he was three years old. His antlers had 33 points that year; 13 on the left side and 20 on the right. The number of points on his right antler have obviously declined since then, but have increased on the left side.
“Zeus has always been easy going for a buck,” Connie commented. “He’s one of our favorite deer. We had no idea how big his antlers were going to get. We are amazed at how large they have been during recent years.
“Zeus lost his antlers earlier than normal last year,” Cullip added. “He lost them during December. He usually has them until March.”
