Speak to Chris Rogers at Euston, he has a few on his wall taken on the estate, seems to be a local genetic tendancy there, sure he will be able to give you more information if you send him a message....
Truly coalesced very rare as the guys said. I think I have seen a few hundred roe over the years and only ever seen one, on a wall of the big hoose on an estate in Moray.
Be interesting to know if you are near enough to Euston for it to be from the same gene pool.
Hi NickJ, that's very interesting to hear about Euston... Yes, there is only one farm separating me from Euston! I will take it down there and get some more info.
I shot one in Wiltshire a couple of years ago and sent the photos in to the Shooting Times. Due to it's rarity it actually got published with an article written about it. Sadly I chucked the magazine out in my latest move by mistake. Basically (so the article said) it usually happens in old bucks where their coronets are very wide/large. The coronets merge together as one and therefore the antlers start growing so close together that they merge into one antler at the base as they grow too. The expert said that despite seeing 1000's of roe heads for measuring over the years he had seen less than a dozen coalesced heads. I guess that gives an indication of rarity. Your's looks bigger than mine too
my brother in law once shot one with 7 antlers, 3 on each side and one in the middle, i think it was an 11 pointer all in all. never seen anything like it.
Thanks all for the replies... Have finally taken it down to Euston and also asked everyone I could... It seems as mentioned above it's from a very old buck. No mention of specific gene pools from this part of Suffolk though. I am having it boiled out and measured. Will let you know if it does anything on the medal stakes. Also, I think it will be interesting to have a closer look at the teeth to gauge age...
If Euston have a few I would suspect a localised genetic abnormality as suggested above. Cut section and polish the only accurate way to age by teeth, esp on your sandy soils.
have you another pic now it's been boiled out? Thanks
Weight wise, I've been told expect a loss of between 10-15%. Incidentally I have a skull that will have been drying 90 this coming Saturday. It weighed 540g wet and is currently (and has been stable for some time at) 460g. Although much depends on the density of the bone etc etc....
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