If he was alive when it broke off, he may have lived. It's amazing to me sometimes what these deer can live through. What should be mortal wounds a lot of times don't even effect them.

not all too uncommon for some of our "half racks" to have busted skulls like that. but, that ones seems to have a good bit of bone missing...

may or may not be alive..

i never seen one of the half racks up close...just their skulls boiled out and can definently see that they were half racks because it was busted off the skull....dont know if it would ever grow back an antler there again with part of the skull missing...

I would say he is dead thats a pretty deep chunk into the brain caveman!LOL

Ouch!!! I would think not. neat find

Thats what I need next year...brain damaged deer.... I maight have a better chance...LOL

Dead Deer.

I think Rob would be the expert on this one.... I'm sure he'll chime in. If he lived he'll be on Rob's wall soon enough!

LOL

I think it's possible that he lived. They're a lot tougher than most imagine. The bone will grow back but I'm not sure what effect there will be on this years antler growth.

I would be inclined to say he is dead, but I shot a buck a bunch of years ago whose beam came down around his jaw line. When I cut his skull I found that his skull had been broken, with a bigger piece that what is on the antler Magicman posted, then it twisted downward and healed that way. It looked like it had been healed for quite some time by the amount of bone growth and it was an older deer. He is the only true mature deer I've shot and we estimate him at 4.5 + years old.