I killed a young 8 point last wednesday. I notice when he was coming in that his rack looked funny so when I went to recover him I discovered that one side of his rack was broke and just dangling down the side of his head. When I cut through the skin to remove the antler the whole skull around the antler was broken and the skin was the only thing that was keeping his brain from being exposed. I can't imagine the pain that this caused this young buck. Has anyone else seen or heard of this?

Owch, maybe got smucked by a car? Man that sounds painful. I know I've see some goofy racks from skulls being damaged before but can't say I've personally shot one like that.

Gutshot,

A few years ago i came upon something similar while spotting. On the roadside we found a young buck that had just been hit by a car. He was still alive and struggling to get off the road and his one antler was just dangling by a flap of skin. A DCNR ranger came out and dispatched the poor little guy and discovered his skull had been baciscally cracked like a walnut shell. It was pretty gross but a real testament to just how tough a whitetail is.

I've seen it before. Could be a number of things, I've even read where fighting has caused that. I have a buddy that killed one with a bow just like you described.

I have also herd of it, but never saw or shot 1 like that. Had it be painfull.

i saw a video a while back on youtube (i cant find it now) where two bucks are in one heck of a fight and when they finley stop the one buck is standing there with one antler hanging real funny and loose. the camera zooms in and you could see it was a broken skull. every time he moved his head you could see his scalp move up and down. it looked real bad but he didnt even seem to notice. he just walked around a little and then started to trail a doe.
i think the rut gets the bucks so jacked up that NOTHING (but me) can stop them from breeding or fighting.

I killed one like that a few years back. He wasn't huge but I thought one antler was growing down and under his chin. The antler was loose and my son pulled on it and it came off his head.

i killed one several years ago just like that...dont know what happened to him either

I had a friend shoot one just like that a couple of years ago. Just to show how tough one of these bucks can be the deer had a fractured skull (like you described) he was doulbe lung shot and still traveled over 300 yards!