goodman, one thing that I've seen over the years is that a bucks brow tines very rarely change shape or relative size. Beam style stays the same also, just bigger as he ages.

I would 99% agree with you on the beam and brow observations.
I might disagree with you here and say that the basics don't seems to have changed much. The nose to tip distance is substantial, yet there is a little more bite in the beam of the dead pics. The brow placement and angle is nearly identical, simply having a couple inches of growth, which is predictable. The frame of the beams regarding width is nearly the same at 15-16". Another wild asss guess could be made that you only get one random pic of a buck on the fringe of his territory, and a couple years later he's strolling back through. I see this every yr with deer that are around Aug-Oct, disappear, then show up again in Feb.