My buddy back in Iowa sent me an email several weeks ago describing in detail how he had harvested this monster buck. He told me how he had been patterning this big ol' boy for a year or two, and ended up taking him one night when it was getting VERY dark. He could only see one of his big ol' 170 class antlers when he shot, and he made a good one....obviously he either imagined the other one due to the darkness or thought it was obstructed by a tree/bush/whatever. After seeing it go down, he headed straight to him to claim his prize....to his amazement, the buck only had one antler. He told me how after several weeks of talking about it at the bowshop, he heard about some fella who may have found the match a week or so prior to him shooting it. He went to this antler collector (made lamps or something?) and traded him a few smaller ones from previous years to get this one, which fit perfectly into the hole of his boiled out skull.

Ok, now I just got an email from him, along with every single hunting buddy he knows, with a picture and story about this 170 class buck....with one problem, he didn' t mention anything about the missing antler when he shot it, or buying/trading for it to get the match.

To be perfectly honest, I was a little put off by this, as I found it to be a tad dishonest. I mean, isn' t harvesting animals about that particular animal, at THAT particular time? Isn' t this a little bogus? Just as I said to him, ' to each his own' , but I was just curious how ya' ll view this.

Opinions please.

Boy, I' m tryin' to figure this out.........was the antler supposed to be shed or broken? If it' s a shed, can you guys hunt deer in the spring?

Bucks, have been known to shed their antlers, in december and in some rare cases, nov. I seen one such instance this year during antlerless season the first week of dec. a guy shot a huge " doe" which turned out to be a buck that had lost its antlers, i beleive injuries or sickness sometimes quickens the process

Maybe I should have been a little more clear. There is no doubt he is telling me the truth, the antler had a chunk of skull on it, which fit like a piece of a puzzle into the skull.

I am wondering how you guys feel about it...in that, I suppose I may be a little ol' fashioned, but that isn' t the buck he shot...the one he shot only had one antler!!! I guess I just feel like it is a bit of a con, which takes away from the experience...at least it is supposed to.

.

[Deleted by Admins]

Deer sheds dont have ' a chunk of skull' on them.

Like Natty said. Somethings rotten in Denmark.

Well, they don' t have a chunk of skull but they do have a protrusion out of the bottom of he antler that could be fit back into the skull cap where it detached. Some would call it a piece of the skull I guess, but it' s really just the inner marrow.

I found a horn with a piece of skull attached that a 160 class buck had pulled off after getting tangled in some wire. Tried to find the deer, but never did.
I do think it' s nice that he was able to recover the horn even tho it can' t be listed in the book.