Antler Oddities
 

I ran across an old article in Texas Fish and Game magazine yesterday about deer injuries causing antler deformities.
After thinking about it, my best deer ever, a large 9 point had a cysted-over .22 slug in his backstrap. Now I' m wondering if that slug kept him from being a 10. His rack is perfectly symetrical except the lack of the tenth point. Anyone have any similar experiences? Just curious!

RE: Antler Oddities
 

I don' t have any real life experience with this, but I' ve read about it before. I have seen an elk (spike) with one anler curved back around his face. It was pretty strange

RE: Antler Oddities
 

if an animal is damaged or hurt on one side then the other side is affected on the horns.:D

RE: Antler Oddities
 

I wouldn' t call missing one point a deformity due to injury:)

But you can milk that other point all you want:D:D

Usually, when an injury is severe enough to alter antler growth it does so in a significant way. It is disformed.

RE: Antler Oddities
 

I got these 2 on film last week. One has a right antler and the other a left. The opposite antler is just a nub. I figured they were buttons last year and were injured during the hunting season. Although we do have a couple Non-typicals around here so maybe it is just the genes.

RE: Antler Oddities
 

I agree with Rack-Attack. I don' t think that missing a point that exists on the opposite side is considered a deformity.

RE: Antler Oddities
 

I' m not really saying that a buck with an odd number of points is deformed.
As I did say, the rack is very symetrical. Except for two things, the missing tenth point (the 3 inch " ninth point" adds up to 4.5 inches of over-all deducted BC points) and even though the rack is symetrical, the main beam on that side has a bend to it instead of a smooth curve.
Anyway, the irregularity may have been caused by the .22 slug, maybe the next year he might have been a ten, or maybe he would have never been a ten! All I know is that he has not grown any at all since I hung ' em on my wall!!!! HEHEHE!!!!:D

RE: Antler Oddities
 

most of the time it is a leg injury that causes antler deformity.
I have a bunch of deformed antlers.I look for them.every one I have ,you can see the injury that caused the deformity,the back legs on all of them has scars,one hit by a car(looks like) all the others look like they were hung in a fence.

as soon as I can post some pic' s. I will.

RE: Antler Oddities
 

I have cammed several with unusual antler make-up I think it is primarily the result of some type of accident to the opposite side of the antler deformity.Here are several -

woods




















You can see the scar on the bottom buck down his right side.

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