Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting ever shoot an antler off?

I know it happens and I managed to do it myself many years ago.

While still hunting, two big blacktails came by and I could only see their antlers over the brush. There was small windfall nearby that I was able to step up on and see their heads from the chin up. they were maybe 30 yards away and I thought I could head shoot the biggest one offhand...the only shooting option I had.

At the shot I heard what sounded like two huge cue balls coming together! It was my bullet, a 130gr Hornady from my .270, striking the base of an antler. The buck dropped instantly and I thought he was all mine, but as I approached through the brush he jumped up and ran off never to be seen again....

When I got to the location all that was there was this nice 4 point antler - it's still a trophy of sorts to me...

Oh yea. So sure he was dead, I went over with just my knife. He got up and I killed him with my pocket knife.

A friend of mine witnessed it years ago in Colorado. The guy he was hunting with shot a Mule Deer with a .30-378 Weatherby. Knocked it down, and he said he was looking through binoculars at it. Said he could see the antler base explode.

I shot a buck one time that was behind a big tree looking for me and hit him right below the ear hole with my Whelen. He hit the ground and wallowed out a big circle running on his side in the leaves before he died. One of his antlers fell off in the death throes.

About 20 years ago I was on a guided mule deer hunt in Wyoming. In camp there just happened to be a newspaper sportswriter from a town close to where I grew up. He was testing a new rifle/ammo combo to write an article when he got home. The second or third day he shot an average 4pt. but didn't say much about the hunt. The guide later told us that he first gut shot the deer followed by shooting off half an antler before finally dropping the deer. A few weeks after getting home I found his article and it made no mention of the gut shot or antler. Basically, he wrote that the rifle and ammo performed perfectly, and the deer dropped at the perfect first shot.

Crossed a pair once as the deer raised up when I shot.

Best antler shoot I've witnessed was a guy with buck fever shot a big bull in a spike only area, he started shooting points off and it was in a large sagebrush area where about a dozen hunters watched with binos, Busted and not cheap.

I prefer aiming at the heart/lung area.

Many years ago hunting our ranch in the A zone of Cal where the regs state fork horn or better I shot the fork off of a buck that was a spike on the other side. Took ten or fifteen minutes of searching to find that fork all the time thinking "I'm sure I saw a fork when he jumped up".

Yep. A small 8 point years ago

yep. 4 point(western count). spined and dragging itself.

A buddy of mine just got 2 deer with one shot. The deer weren't even in line and were 8 ft apart. He shot the cull buck right through the shoulder, the bullet deflected on the pass through and exited, dropping a yearling off-set 8 feet away. He said the cull buck jumped and ran 30 yards before falling over, the yearling dropped in it's tracks. Good thing he still had available tags.

I prefer shooting in the ribs as well but sometimes in thick woods you don't get ideal shot angles. 25 years ago here you were lucky just to see 2 or 3 bucks a year where I hunted. When you saw a buck you best be trying to find a way to line up a shot. If you wanted to eat some venison.

I didn’t see it but there’s a story going around with the guys that have been in the club longer than I have about this.

Seems a guy wounded a six point late in the afternoon. After a short search, now in the dark, the search party found the buck with its head still up. So he took out his 38, and with the aid of a flashlight, shot and blew off one antler causing the buck to get up and run a short ways. They found him again and the guy took another shot and knocked off the other side. DOH! ! ! 😳

They finally finished the antlerless, “trans buck” 😁 with one of their rifles.

In all my years of hunting and guiding I have seen 6 or 8 antlers shot off by hunters and 1 shot off on purpose by a friend with a .45 ACP 2 locked up bucks, Miles Patton And Ed to many letters a me watched them fight for about 5 min. they got down and couldn't get up, Ed said I can shoot a antler off with my 1911, I said have at other wise we will have to kill them both or the Coyotes will tonight, Miles and me sat in the Jeep and watched Ed walked out and from about 8-10 yards away shot the antler off 1 of the Bucks they jumped up and ran in two different directions Ed has the antler he shot off. I've got a couple of pictures of the bucks locked up and the antler, but I can't find them maybe Miles or Ed will post a picture?? Rio7

I never have, but someone tried to. This is the buck I got in 2022.

Now that is astonishing! Can you imagine watching that buck run off after the shot?!

Now that's neat.

my dad (RIP) shot a decent 7pt and when he got it, he thought he shot doe. he looked around and found the antlers laying next to the buck.

That is. I'd want a euro of that.

Inadvertently busted up antlers when i hunted with my 12 ga master blaster with buck shot..

Makes you wonder what kind of archery shot they were going for.

I wonder if that was when the buck was in velvet….

Blacktails here in Southeast AK start losing their antlers in December. I've had various bucks that had an antler go flying off when they got hit. One time I grabbed one by the antler to drag him a short ways and went ass over end when the antler popped off in my hand.

Shouldn't have been. Our archery season starts 3-4 weeks after they typically lose velvet.
When you look up close, the antler was fully hardened off based on the cracks.
I hadn't even noticed until I had it home and hanging.

That could have been bad news if you grab an antler to drag him and pick the wrong one. Ouch!

I thought the same thing!

It happens pretty often if you’re hunt’n with a “one eyed dog”! 😉 memtb

i almost shot one off with a 12 ga. only shot i had in high weeds was a head shot so i tried. he dropped at the shot but when i approached he blinked so i finished him off.
islug just barely nicked an antler and knocked him out. he was coming around as i walked up on him.

Just once. I shot a fork horn mulie many years ago in CO in a really heavy snow storm. He was bedded in the sagebrush and all I could see was the head. Shot him where the ear hooked up to the skull on the right side (he was laying broadside) and when I walked up to him his left antler was laying in the snow about 5 ft away with a big chunk of skull attached to it. I used a 7mm Mag and his head was a real mess.

Not a deer, my first bull elk though. Slowed him down considerably. We had fresh snow and I followed a nice size track down into the heavier timber. Then up ahead lay a very nice 5x6 with his head up, but looking directly away. I didn't dare go any farther for fear of spooking him, so I took the shot off hand at his upper neck. Brush deflection, a wiggle or elk fever or a mixture of all three, but the elk got to his feet and trotted about 50 feet to the right giving me a perfect broadside lung shot. Strange I thought because elk should run faster than that. Not that one with a perfect 7mm hole through the base of his left antler. That must have rung his bell pretty good.

Shot a knee-cap off once - does that count?

Got out of the boat, changed out of our Yukon River running gear, and started up the bank of a feeder stream.. Plan was to work upstream a mile or so (very shallow creek), cross, hunt back to the boat. If we found a moose to shoot , I could walk the boat up to it, through the riffles and shallows, and float it back down. Seemed like a good plan.

70-80 yards from the boat, a young bull moose came walking out 70 or so yards ahead, down to get a drink. Short hunt - I liked it! Just one riffle to navigate.

"Wait until he finishes and turns away- we don't want him in the water", I told my wife.

She did, and when she touched off her .243 the muzzle was about 2 feet from my ear. I reflex shot off the .270...

Her shot went thru both lungs... moose limped about 15 yards to behind a screen of brush, stood there for a minute or so and fell over. We heard it go down, circled around to a higher over-look bank behind, just in case. The Lab was bouncing around from the shot.... "Retrieve...retrieve....retrieve...!" He was 3, and had never even seen a moose. And not this one.

On spotting the downed moose I gave him the go.. He ran down, sniffed a leg, and looked back at me....

"You HAVE GOT to be kidding!"

Well, it was his first moose, but once earlier he had tried to retrieve a not-shot walrus.

That's another story.

Damn- I wish I was young again! With dogs to live with in the future.

Definitely had a head ache!

Have never shot an antler off, but several years ago I was hunting just outside the boundary of a state park. A nice 8 point was sneaking up a small draw on his way to the safety zone. Somehow he knew I was close by. He went behind a large oak tree and bent his neck around so that only his head was visible. The only shot I had was to aim between his eye and his antler. Dead right there, but his left antler was only attacked by the skin.

There was a State Police game check station set up on the highway back to town.
I showed them the shot off antler and it garnered quite a crowd of interested hunters. No one knew of a one antlered buck being killed, but I asked the game guys to give my contact info out if a hunter brought him in.

Not 15 minutes after shooting the antler off, there was a rifle shot a few hundred yards away down the hill from where I was. A major game trail led up that ridge line from the shot and just stayed put to see what might happen. In a short while a heavy antlered 3 point buck came sneaking up the trail with his head held low - I killed him right there less than twenty yards from where I shot the other bucks antler off!!

The buck had been shot while going away from the shooter. The bullet tunneled under the skin From the back of the hips and popped out behind a shoulder, doing no substantial damage at all.....

Never shot one off, shot a deer and saw one fall off though. Deer was late season and fairly poor. Antler shedded right off as the deer hit the dirt

Hog hunting in Florida and only had a Rugger 44 mag pistol. Six point deer came out on the road about 20 yards away and I dropped it with one shot But...it got up and started staggering around like the biggest drunk you ever saw. Thick brush all around so I start shooting but can not hit, even though it came within 5 yards. Finally hit it with next to last shot. Don't think it ever went 2 feet in the same direction and never quit jerking around. First shot had broken one of the horns off at the skull and obviously had messed his locomotion up bad. Never forget that rodeo

Shot an 8 pt running straight at me with OO buckshot. Antlers exploded liked like kindling wood. He nose dived and slid toward me dead.
Shot another 8 pt with OOB. Was standing behind a tree and he came running by at about 8 feet. At the shot he went tail over tea kettle and slid to a stop. Noticed one antler was missing. When he flipped over one antler broke off in the dirt and about 3 in of brow tine was imbedded in his back.

I have done this twice !

1st time, got quite the shock, after dragging him out of a brush pile.



Power of the mighty .308 !