Anyone had antlers fall off when shoot?
Contributors to this thread:Whitetail Deer
From: TreeWalker
04-Jul-10
There are some late hunts for deer, pronghorn, elk and caribou and I am curious if anyone here has shot an animal with antlers/horns and in the process the headgear pops off before the animal expires? I have heard of this but never experience it myself.
From: gobbler
04-Jul-10
It hasn't happened to me but I have had friends that it has happened to in late december here in wv. It happened to my brother in maryland during their january season.
From: ahunter55
04-Jul-10
Twice I shot a 6 pointer in S. Ws. & he rared up & rolled almost to the base of my tree. One antler was black & soft & it fell out when he hit the ground. Warden said it had probably been injured in velvet. 2nd was an Axis-I shot him & he went 20 yds.& fell, got up & went 20 more & dropped for good. When I got to him, NO HORNS. I went back where he fell the 1st time & they were both there. They shed various times of year, depending on when they are born. Anyway, when my buddies came to get me I had put the Horns back in the holes & proped them up. Asked them to help an old man pull him to the truck. They both grabbed a horn & they came off. I made a big scene & they were lost for words until I told them. Then they kicked my A---.
From: Lee
04-Jul-10
Shot a nice 10 pt. in South GA back in 96 that when I walked up to him appeared to be a doe! I grabbed his leg and looked sure enough a buck, pulled his head up and it was obvious he had lost his rack (thought for a minute I'd stumbled across another kill as it was on public land). backtracked the blood trail and found both antlers along the bloodtrail. Turns out he had been shot with a slug gun sometime before I shot him on Dec. 3 and he had lost a lot of weight. He was in such bad shape his antlers simply fell off when he ran off. This was at least a month early for shedding. He was so poor I didn't end up eating him as parts of him were putrid.
Lee
From: Notnormal
04-Jul-10
A few years ago I did a late season push to my cousin on public land. Anice 8 point buck stopped in bow range and he missed the shot. When the buck bolted both antlers fell off right where he shot. When I found his arrow both antlers were laying beside it. He said it was OK antlers were his main objective that day anyway. It sure was easier carrying those antlers than dragging that buck in the deep snow!
From: jkmo
04-Jul-10
I shot this little 7 pointer Dec 29, 2009. When I grabbed the antlers to move it for field dressing the right one pulled off. In the pic I am holding it. Later I pulled the left one off. It took a little force (like opening a tough jar) but not bad.
From: goyt
04-Jul-10
A couple of years ago my brother shoot a real nice buck after Christmas in WI. When he recovered it both antlers were laying next to the buck. They had fallen off as the buck was taking his last kicks. He took the antlers and the buck in to register it. The clerk said he should register it as a antlerless deer. Later the game warden had him come back and register it as an antlered buck becasuse that is what it was when he shoot it. Fortunately it was legal either way.
From: woody@work
04-Jul-10
I've had it happen on deer and carbou. On one deer I grabbed the antler and it popped off.
From: Barry Wensel
04-Jul-10
I shot at a buck in the late '80s during the late season in Montana. As he ran off he ducked under a softwood and his left antler spun to the ground like the blade of a helicopter. I picked it up and showed it to the landowner and he wanted it. What can you say? Before I grudgingly gave it to him I taped it. With a 22" inside spread and doubled he measured in the low 160s. Then another year I was hunting with one of the New Hampshire F&G commissioners. He shot a 4x4 buck running. I witnessed him roll it. When the buck hit the ground both antlers popped off. Just the year before last my brother, Gene, got a blurred trail camera picture of a buck. It was shaking it's head. One antler was intact and the other was in mid-air about a foot above the skull. Several of us saw the picture then he mistakenly deleted it while messing with the camera. Bummer. BW
From: Buckstopper
05-Jul-10
Several years ago (2006) a friend shot a nice 8 point on Dec. 28. It ended up dying in a small creek. When I pulled on the left antler it came off in my hand. The right side seemed solid.
Fast forward to last week. We had a catagory 5 earthquake. The buck fell off the wall during the quake and the right antler came off. I figure it may be a worlds record for time between shedding both sides.LOL
Here he is holding the rack so it looks intact.
From: BowNFly
07-Jul-10
I shot a one horned 3 point buck with shotgun 2 years ago. When it fell, he wacked his head on a sapling and the skull plate cracked and the antler came off in my hand. Eww
From: Jaquomo_feral
08-Jul-10
A friend shot a 180 class buck in eastern CO in December when it was way below zero. The buck piled into a fence, toppled over it at full speed, and landed smack on his rack on the frozen ground. Both sides broke into pieces. He gathered the piece-parts up, brought them home and glued them back together.
From: Treerat
09-Jul-10
On Dec 17 2000 I shot a 181 inch (Gross) buck in Chataqua CO NY that lost one side when he hit the ground and the other side when I got him back to the taxidermist.
From: wilbur
09-Jul-10
Hunted this buck for over a month taking him on the last day (12/18/07) of muzzleloader season. Had numerous pictures of him, many during legal shooting hours however only one sighting before the last day. Got a photo of him at 5:30 AM on 12/17 and he had both sides of his rack. Planned on hunting the whole day on 12/18 and at 2:00 PM I saw him approaching on a trail. He entered a shooting lane and I shot. As I watched him run thru the woods I was surprised to see he had NO ANTLERS. I knew I had seen his left side as he approached. When I walked up to the deer sure enough he had no rack. I checked his back trail and I found the left side of the rack only twenty yards from the point of impact. The right side was no where to be found.
I laid in bed that night mulling over the fact that I only had half of his rack and the fact that he had both sides the day before. I woke early on the morning of the 19th determined to find the other half. I followed his back trail for an hour or so and there in the snow was the other half!
He is a main frame 8 pointer with kicker points on his G-2's, and old buck with lots of scars and character.
They did a story about this deer in Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine in the Candid Whitetails column.
From: wilbur
09-Jul-10
Daylight photo of deer.
From: Mathew
19-Jul-10
my dad killed an 8 pt. way back in december of 1981. It was muzzleloader season here in Indiana. He shot him and saw him go down. When he got to him he had two circles on top of his head. Had to back track the blood trail to find his antlers.
From: David Alford
19-Jul-10
This buck lost one when he hit the ground and the other when I tried to drag him out. It was a bit disconcerting. Note he was still partly in velvet in January.
From: swampman
26-Jul-10
I had one lose 1/2 his rack a couple seasons ago in mid-December. He had been wounded in a gun season earlier in the year which might have contributed to his poor condition. After my shot he got caught up when trying to jump a fence and somewhere in the process one side fell off.
From: delmag1942
26-Jul-10
I had one in 2008 the last day of Iowa MZ season (1/10) thet came off theminute I touched it! With the extreme winter in 2009, many deer lost one or both horns before the first of the year!!!!!!!!!!
From: Bill in MI
27-Jul-10
Yes they did, that's for sure.
I hunted till the end of the season in IA and saw multiple bucks that had complete racks the day before become half racks the next day. My buddy killed a nice 150+ buck and we dragged the deer a couple of hundred yards just fine. After hanging the deer for 2 days in the barn (frozen solid as it was friggin cold), we went in to look at him again, barley touched the antlers and one fell off.
Lesson learned, when you see a buck in late season, aggressivley make a shot oppurtunity happen as he might not have all the jewelry the next day.
Bill in MI
From: WVDanimal
14-Aug-10
OUUUUUCHHHHH!!!!! that thorn in my side returns! My best buck by muzzleloader, typical 8pt. which I shot at 15 yds was a "doe" when I got to him only 40yds later. Found one side 20 yds from the shot where he ran into a tree. Searched for an hour along the 40yd blood trail for the other side and eventually gave up. Rolled him over to gut him to find he was lying on the other side......... Have seen many examples of this. One reason I hate late seasons, you never know what you're shooting at until it's at your feet. Those late doe seasons in our state have been the demise of several nice bucks I'm sure.
From: steve
15-Aug-10
I arrowed an 8 point the third week of January. Had both antlers when I shot. Only one when I found him. Had to back track to find the other......
I pulled off the other antler dragging him out......
Got lucky......
From: Cowboy in Colorado
16-Aug-10
I had a friend guide a client to a nice buck - 150+ish I think - on a ranch in Tx in Jan. They got set to take pics, and one side popped off in his hand. Apparently, he cried, as he REALLY wanted one in the book...
From: HuntingGPSmaps
16-Aug-10
I was with a friend hunting antelope and he shot an antelope that proceeded to go under a fence and knock one antler/horn off.
