Deer have antlers not horns. My understanding is antlers are bone and fall off every year. Horns stay year around and are made of different materials. When people talk deer hunting and say horns it kind of bugs me. Can you call antlers horns, or is that not correct. I wasn' t totally sure and don' t like to talk about things I don' t know so for future conversation i would like to know. Thanks-Sam

You are correct on this one! Some people just use the word " horns" as a slang for antlers.

Thats pretty much the way I always understood it. So I think your right.

You are correct. [8D]

I call them horns all the time

I think its fine to do so - it is just slang

But you are right there is a difference - though antlers are not " bone"

Horns, ivory, head gear, bone, they are all slang terms.

That is always the way I understood it.

It don' t bug me so much when you are shooting the bull with your buddies and use the term " horns" . But it does bug the heck out of me when I am watching some hunting show and they use the term horns. For some people, this is one of the main forms of learning about our sport, and they learn the wrong term and never even know it.

That gets my goat too, but what really bothers me is the guys on hunting shows that have to individually touch and count the tines on a rack so they can figure if it is a 6 or 8 point. 1,2,3,4,5 uh 6. He' s a six point. Well, yeah, I could have told you that before you shot it.

yep you' re right ! they do that around here all the time it drives me crazy too ,the only time it doesn' t bother me too much is when the old timers say it because they really don' t care![:-]

Yes you are right on this one. Antlers grow every year and then fall off during the winter months so the animal wont waste its minerals on the antlers and will get all the minerals they need to survive. Horns on the other hand are an extention of the sinus cavity. If you cut the horns while a horned animal is living, the animal will bleed very badly.