Extra antler?

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Slick13
Levergunner 2.0
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Extra antler?

Post by Slick13 »

Shot this guy Saturday, the last day of deer season. Sorry, the levers stayed at home this year. Was going to use my pre-64 Model 94, but for some reason was having a terrible time seeing well enough to shoot groups on paper, so I wasn't going to hunt with it. So I used the scoped bolt action instead (Savage 114, .30-06), and never could have made the shot I did if I hadn't had a scope.

Got in the woods late (after 10AM), and wasn't there 10 or 15 minutes before he came staggering along. Couldn't tell if he was legal (need four points on one side). I kept getting out ahead of him, picking a clear spot, and trying to count points as he walked through. He was staggering like he was hurt (there'd been a LOT of shooting going on in the few minutes I'd been out there, and it was obviously being taken at running deer) so I said "PA game laws be darned, I'm not letting a wounded animal stumble around in the woods because of some some dummy with a 760 took a bunch of shots he shouldn't have. I'll find out if he's legal when he's dead". Shot was about 75 yards, through a bunch of trees. When I took a friend back in the woods to show him where I was standing and where the deer dropped his response was "I don't know how you made that shot Mikey, I can't see a clear lane!" and my dad said "there's a place in our woods you can shoot that far?!". I got out ahead of him, picked a spot, and when he stepped into the opening I pulled the trigger. Hit him in the spine and he was dead before he hit the ground. Was glad to see he had the required points on his right side when I came walking up to him. Was suprised to see it looks like he had an extra antler or something growing (and then broke off) in front of the left antler. Any ideas what it was, or has any seen that on a deer before? Oh, and the deer wasn't injured. I don't know why he was staggering the way he was.

~Michael

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Buck Elliott
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by Buck Elliott »

Sure glad you took him out of the gene-pool...

Musta been kinda shallow at his end...
Regards

Buck

Life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens, and the unforeseeable, that which your life becomes...
Slick13
Levergunner 2.0
Posts: 307
Joined: Mon Sep 10, 2007 8:16 am

Re: Extra antler?

Post by Slick13 »

Buck Elliott wrote:Sure glad you took him out of the gene-pool...

Musta been kinda shallow at his end...
Are you saying he's too young to have shot?

~Michael
Nath
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by Nath »

Nice work, good shot :D

Nath.
Psalm ch8.

Because I wish I could!
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Buck Elliott
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by Buck Elliott »

Slick13 wrote:
Buck Elliott wrote:Sure glad you took him out of the gene-pool...

Musta been kinda shallow at his end...
Are you saying he's too young to have shot?

~Michael
Nope...
Sayin' that a critter like that needed to be shot, before he spreads his 'abnormality' through the herd.

Good job.
Regards

Buck

Life has a way of making the foreseeable that which never happens, and the unforeseeable, that which your life becomes...
Slick13
Levergunner 2.0
Posts: 307
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by Slick13 »

Buck Elliott wrote:
Slick13 wrote:
Buck Elliott wrote:Sure glad you took him out of the gene-pool...

Musta been kinda shallow at his end...
Are you saying he's too young to have shot?

~Michael
Nope...
Sayin' that a critter like that needed to be shot, before he spreads his 'abnormality' through the herd.

Good job.
Okay, that's what I thought at first, then I started thinking shallow end of the pool, that's the end kids swim in...

Thanks!

~Michael
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44magHunter
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by 44magHunter »

I seen that before in a couple magazines. I think that also started to happen on one of my deer. He just had a little bumpon his skull nesxt ot his right main beam. I think this would have turned into another antler beam.
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Pisgah
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by Pisgah »

It's not very common, but it isn't all that rare, either. Antler growth, in itself, is pretty bizarre if you think about it. For a few months bone cells go berserk and grow faster than just about any other tissue in any anmal (in fact, you could almost call it cancerous growth), requiring huge expenditures of energy, to provide a display that soon falls off. Weird, weird things happen with antlers. For instance -- ever see a deer with a normal antler on one side and a twisted or dwarfed, freakish antler on the other side? Well, it is often caused by injury to a leg on the side of the body opposite the antler! Why a leg? And why on the opposite side? Quite literally, God only knows.

A friend once shot a "unicorn" -- a solitary spike growing from the center of his head. Nothing but a single spike about 5" long, but he had a skull mount made of it, and it is quite an odd trophy.
dkmlever
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by dkmlever »

Congrats on a nice shot in the thick PA woods! Nice buck and nice shot. I never shot a deer over 70 yards till I moved from PA to CO, then WOW you can see them and shoot at them out to 400 yards!
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vancelw
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by vancelw »

Slick13 wrote:
Okay, that's what I thought at first, then I started thinking shallow end of the pool, that's the end kids swim in...

Thanks!

~Michael

That saying just implies there is not much diversity in his family history...inbred...family tree doesn't branch. Thus the gene pool is "shallow". We say that about a lot of humans in some parts of this county (okay Arkansas levergunners....bash me now, I'm ready :lol: )
"Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure that there is one less scoundrel in the world." - Thomas Carlyle
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deerwhacker444
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by deerwhacker444 »

Slick13 wrote: Oh, and the deer wasn't injured. I don't know why he was staggering the way he was.

~Michael
:? You guys don't have CWD in your neck of the woods do you? A deer that appears healthy staggering around would make me nervous. Maybe he had brainworms or something..?

Nice buck anyhow..!
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Slick13
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by Slick13 »

dkmlever wrote:Congrats on a nice shot in the thick PA woods! Nice buck and nice shot. I never shot a deer over 70 yards till I moved from PA to CO, then WOW you can see them and shoot at them out to 400 yards!
After work this afternoon I took the dog for walk, and took a couple photos of the view from where I shot. The orange dot in the middle is where the deer was at. Guessing it was 75 yards. Wasn't more than 100. I spotted him well to the right of where I shot him at, and had better clearing that way, but was too busy counting points to shoot.

As far as I know, CWD hasn't hit PA yet deerwhacker444

~Michael

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JerryB
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Re: Extra antler?

Post by JerryB »

Nice looking deer, hope he is ok for meat.

Jerry, from ARKANSAW
JerryB II Corinthians 3:17, Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

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