Do you keep all your antlers?
 

A couple years ago I was picking meat up at the butchers and on his hide trailer there was an 8pt. I asked the guy if the hunter wanted them and was told no. So I cut them off for a little set of rattleing horns.

So here is my question... Do you guys keep all the antler sets you get from deer you have shot?

I do, from spikes on up. They keep that day alive for me and for every set I can tell you exactly what happened. I know some guys are there just for the meat and I get that but that was a decent little 8pt..

Always. I guess it kinda seems wrong to me to throw them. i understand there are poeple who really don't care and thats there choice, but I keep them and they have a nice place on my wall.

Antlers amuse me no matter how big they are. Idk why but that's the way I am. Even if ever find a spike shed Ill keep it.

Same here. Keep every set. When I was a kid my dad took me to a guys house that he worked with. This guy and his wife and kids all hunted and between the four of them acquired an impressive amount of antlers from spikes all the way up to some real wall hangers. He had the main room in his basement completely lined with deer antlers that he and his family have killed. It made quite an impession on me.

Not really.....
 

Kept my first buck, an 8 inch spike. Did the european thing, hung the entire skull in a tree for 2 years, it now hangs in my shop. I ve kept two 120's (127" 8, 122" 9) for rattlers. My nephew got my 142" 10 point. As for the rest, people ask for them and I give them away, I don't need them. I've shot 17 bucks.

well I would regardless of size, but then again I don't shoot dinks. I think all of my antlers I've ever shot are mounted on the wall... on shoulder mounts...

I have only shot two, a spike and an 8pt. I have both of them and don't imagine I would ever not want them for something. Always something you could do with them. Make knives, etc...

I have kept all of mine over the years. Most of the better ones are on the wall, others I keep boxed up. Some I have used to make knick-knacks with.

I have a friend that makes antler items such as pens and lamps etc. I give him anything I am not going to use in some way myself. I cleaned out a pile in the garage last year and had room for my riding mower and a happier wife.

I've kept mine. Fortunately most of them can fit in a shoebox:) I've started making buttons and toggle closures out of them.

I have most of mine that I shot, lost a few over the years. After I cut them off I tack them up in my shop. Been doing that for 31 years.

Why shoot a buck if you are not going to keep them?

I know people that do, and I have never had a good answer to the question. Even they agree with me that a doe tastes better, yet they prefer to kill bucks.

/shrug

What can you do? You can't make people follow your way of thinking.

For some people, the object of going hunting is to kill a deer. Some of them are bound by state regulations that do anot allow killing a doe. They shoot the first legal deer they see and are tickled to death.

I fail to see a thing wrong with that. If it is legal and they are happy, I think that is just wonderfull. What I want, what I practice, what I believe is no consequence. I'm not the one that did the shooting. When I shoot, then, it is my opinions and beliefs that matter.

Yep they look good on the wall.

here in ny i know people that only hunt opening weekend. So they are going to shoot whatever they can and i get that. I just cant see throwing out your antlers. As far as why shoot the buck as someone brought up, that might have been the first thing they saw.

I've kept all mine so far. Ten years of hunting and seven bucks. I'll always keep them I suppose. I've got some just as skull caps, two that I've Euro Mounted. Eventually I'll get a couple to mount.
-Jake

keep em .......there to much like artwork to just leave in the trash

I have kept all of my antlers and have most of them on the wall of my house or garage, minus the three mounts at my Mom's house that I killed before I moved out when I was 18. I have made a few necklaces out a few of the smaller ones and rattling horns out of a medium sized one. I guess I have about 15 or so in my garage and 2 in my house.

I keep nearly every antler that I come across, whether it is a skull in the woods, a shed, or a deer I killed. I still have a set of antlers someone gave me when I was a little kid. I have plenty of room for them and for some reason it just seems wrong to throw them out. The only way I'd ever get rid of a set of antlers is if there was someone who wanted them.

This year I was hunting and I came acoss a large pile of bones right next to the property line, as if the neighbor had thrown them over his fence on to our property. There were several horse skulls, some turtle shells, and about 8 buck skulls. They had been out in the elements so long that they were soft and falling apart, you could crush the antlers between your fingers, otherwise I would have picked them up and kept them. It just seemed wrong to see them sitting there wasting away.

i do i think they all represent the memories

I mainly don't unless it has some real character to it. I have many sets in the house and garage and the wife uses them for x-mas decorations about the house once in awhile. I kept a set of 131"10pt for rattling and give the others away to some friends for re-enactment clothes and such.

I've been deer hunting for over 30 years and have kept every single set of antlers I have killed including spikes. The spikes were from my earlier years. A few are mounted on the wall as full shoulder mounts. Some are skull mounts. I have 20 or so racks in my hunting room. The rest are in the storage building on the walls. I know keeping antlers isn't important to a lot of people, but they are all trophies to me. Like earlier said, each set brings back memories of the hunt.

Wife doesn't want dead deer on the walls and it has been that way for almost 42 years. I have a bunch of antlers at my deer camp on the wall and a big pile of caribou, elk and deer antlers in the basement here at the house. Someday when I create my man cave I'll put them on a plaque. Antlers to me are great when on a living animal. Not that big a thing to me once they are dead.

I had a few Buck Antlers when I first started Hunting,mostly a few Spikes and an occasional 4 or 6 Point Buck's Antlers,as I progressed in Hunting I let the smaller Bucks walk and only shoot a Buck that was as Big or Bigger than the last one I shot from the year before.So far I have a very nice 8-Point Buck I shot with my Dad's 30-06 back in 1995,another nice 8-Pointer in 2006,a 9-Pointer in 2009 I shot with my Brother's .270 WSM,then I found a nice Dead (1/2 Eaten Skeleton)10 point Buck in our wooods that was wounded in the Nov. 2009 Rifle Deer Season and 3 months later I found it on Feb 18 2010,I had a lot of History with this Buck....over 2 years of trail camera pictures of Him and I recieved a Permit and had it Re-Caped and paid to have it mounted and its hanging on my Log Wall.

Let see....I found a very nice 8-Point Buck skull in 2009 and have it hanging on the wall...I shot a Basket-Rack 8-Point Buck back in 2005 and I cut the Antlers off and use it for a nice size pair of Rattling Horns,I have each of my 2 Daughters names written on the bottom of the antlers for good luck.....I have another 8-Point Buck I shot back in 2010 getting it done in a European Mount,I have a 6-Point Buck I shot with my Compound Bow back in 2006 still in the Freezer....and I have found a few Shed Antlers around the Family Farm while shed hunting over the past several years.

I dropped off my Biggest Buck at the Taxidermist this past Rifle deer Season in Nov 2011,a nice wide 11-Point Buck that should be finished some time this Summer of 2012...........so yeah I save most of my Antlers! Yikes!!!!!


Now this is all over the course of several years and I get to Bow Hunt 4 months of the Year and Rifle Hunt about 11 days out of the year also and we are allowed 2 Deer tags in our County...I have shot a lot of nice Big Doe's over the years I opted to let the smaller Bucks walk and I hunted for the meat...it just seems I've been lucky/blessed with getting several nice Deers and I have learned a lot over the years to being a better Hunter,and I wouldn't shot a smaller Buck if I wasn't planning an getting it mounted so I would settle on harvesting a nice Doe instead of shooting a smaller Buck that would grow bigger over the years.


I also love running my trail camera's 24/7 year round,365 days a year...its great to see all the different Deer and Wildlife out there and it only cost the price of some pictures or a CD to cherish them for ever.Plus I have been doing a lot of Predator Hunting in the last 3 years and thats a whole new Sport in itself....planning on getting a Coyote Mounted or Tanned and a Bobcat too.

I have all but just a few that I've killed over the last 31 years and all are dated and labeled, gun, bow or muzzleloader. I have around 35 sets in all.

I won't shoot a buck if I'm not willing to mount it. That being said, every buck I've shot is either hanging on my wall or in the process of being mounted. When I find sheds, I keep those too. Someday, I'll do something with them.

I may have mentioned this previously. One use for unmounted racks and found antlers is to dress up floor and pedestal mounts.

for me I have the carcass room as the wife likes to put it. Some are in my gun/hunting room and the rest are in a back entrance way of my house nailed on the wall. But they are all kept.

I still have the small spikes horns that I killed with the bow. It was my first buck and to this day, I remember every part of that hunt. I put all my racks from over my 40+ years of hunting in the hunting shack. Yes, some aren't trophys to some people, but every one has a story. It is great to think back over a lifetime of hunting.

Their part of the memory so there is no way they get thrown away by me.

I keep all mine but I have a Large 10 Point my Boys had a Heart Attack me using them for Rattling.My 3 year old Granddaughter was at the place I gave her the Rack off the Largest Bodied Deer I ever killed,it was a Large 6 Point.My Boy just looked at me when I did this.She lost it to a House fire,I gave her a smaller 9 Point Rack.

I have some I should of had mounted or at least several would have.I have Racks I've cut off,mounts some not real Great but great memories.I have Throphies,just little things of my life I've put up for my Kids and Grandkids.

I have a Large Throphy for Ultimate Outdoorperson of the Year for the State.Nice and an Honor just don't know who it will go to or what it will mean when I'm gone.

Just like the picture in my Avatar my Baby Sister who was hunting with me,right after I shot a 140 inch Buck,we had so much fun.She died of Skin Cancer couple years later but I will take the memories of the hunt like yesterday to my grave.

big rockpile

I keep them all. I try to only shoot deer that are mature so most of them get mounted and get hung at deer camp.

I keep all mine. A bunch went up on the wall at my deer camp. The camp is small and space limited even if it is just racks and skull plates. I made use of the space and small racks are inside larger ones etc. All the rest are in a big pile in the basement and someday I might do something with them. According to my wife they won't be going up in the house. When we got married 43 years ago she said I could hunt and fish as much as I want but in return she didn't like the looks of animal mounts in the house. I had a choice.....she is a great wife and has never backed out on her promise and neither have I.

Picturesfrom my Man Cave few things I've collected.Got bunch more through the House.







big rockpile

I have all mine and don't plan on getting rid of them. When I look at each one I can replay the whole hunt in my mind.

Yep. I have a pile of them, and have given some away that would make a lot of people drool.

I keep all of mine. Each one reminds me of a hunt. That's helpful during the off season! :-)

I've got em all

Like other said, I keep all mine to remember the hunts. Each one is different. Most are hung up out in the garage. Got a few shoulder mounts, a few plaques, and a few Europeans. I've shot enough deer that now I only shoot a deer if its bigger than the last. I did take an average 10 pt this year, but he was injured and it was the last day of the season.