Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Pappy, why are your deer's antlers so fugged up?

Well, if he's been carrying this around in him since last year.......





Not sure when this happened to my buck, but you have to give him credit for being able to carry all that in him and still function.

Found the head while skinning, the arrow piece on the other side when I started cutting him up.

Nature is a powerful beeyotch.

And that is why I use fixed blade broadheads.

Several years ago we harvested a 6pt. that had been arrowed during bow season, the broadhead was lodged between his shoulder blade and his ribcage. He had a pronounced limp, I can imagine what agony each step caused the unfortunate animal.

Given the location of the hit, I doubt a fixed blade would have killed him either, but might have penetrated more and exited, leaving a clean wound.

What,no pics of the fogged up antlers?

Sorry; I'd aready posted the pics twice in other threads.

Wow! Very interesting.

That's the "Pitch Fork" buck. Glad you got to harvest him. He will be great with biscuits and gravy.

Mostly these days it's sliced thin and fried with onion and peppers and maybe mushrooms, then served in a sandwich with American or provolone cheese. Good stuff.

This guy had a 100gn Muzzy sitting in his shoulder[found while butchering]. His rt antler had a slightly different shape.
Congrats Pappy, Virginia deer?

That one had a distinct tactical advantage in sparring. The spikes driven in the forehead probably discourages even larger antlered bucks.

Finished parting the deer out today. Found my bullet, a Barnes 290gr T-EZ, which had stopped in the spine between the shoulders. I'm a bit surprised it didn't go deeper, even pushed by only 80gr (equivalent) of BH209, but it is designed to expand over a wide range of velocities and certainly did the trick.

Also pictured is the expandable and what I'm told is probably a piece of carbon crossbow shafting, based on its size and thickness.

I checked the hide yesterday while cutting off the antlers. As best as I can tell, the arrow entrance wound was healed over, but there was still a hole on the far side from the point's constant cutting action (it was embedded in the scapula). Poor bugger must have been in constant pain.

Anyway, I'm calling this one as the freakism being caused by the old wound.

There is a processor i use on occasion who has a 1 pound coffee can of arrow heads and bullets he's removed from Deer that were not the shot that killed it. He uses napril gloves now, after being sliced a few times.

When I was skinning this guy, I felt something sharp in the wound in his right shoulder. I though it was my missing bullet, or maybe a bone fragment. I cleared away a little tissue and then recognised the arrowhead tip. The piece of the shaft was in the muscle on the other side.

This must be one of those deer that a 270 wont penetrate...lol

Mount it!

It's sitting in a box of salt right now. Will either put it on a board or leave it as finger candy on my bookshelf with his brethren.

I just traded a box of loose antlers for an anvil. (@100#).
An american Indian i know, uses them as handles for handmade knives.