Cast antlers

[AntlerHunter]

I apologise for this not technically being taxidermy or trophy preparation, but these are all trophy's in my eyes. These are from one stag over the last 5 years, the stag has now gone back and is only 12 points this year and so I hope to pull the trigger on him soon. Do many people find cast antlers? And if so have you ever found some year on year? This is a fully wild stag and many years of studying the stags and understanding their migratory habits has led to the findings from this stag. I am able to identify it as the same stag due to it being the only stag of this size to return to this area year on year, the antler burs also remain the same shape year on year, with the coronets having dips and holes in the same place, almost like a fingerprint. The 2016 pair in my hand to show size.(please click on photos to enlarge)

 

[danban]

I have never found any antlers when I have been out and about. They are impressive and to be able to get them for so long must be hard to get.

 

[AntlerHunter]

cheers, it takes some dedication haha. If you can figure out where the bucks/ stags spend their winter, and where their feeding and bedding areas are you're pretty much on your way to having them

 

[deerstalker.308]

Just at a casual glance you can see that they're all from the same animal they're nigh on identical year on year, fantastic conllection, well done.

 

[AntlerHunter]

cheers, got a few from other big stags. For me you don't need to pull the trigger to get the trophy. Let em go and let em grow is my opinion. Let them have their prime years to get good genetics into the herd, then start culling your bad animals, take the big boys once they've reached their prime or better still once they've surpassed it

 

[Kjf]

What a cracking thread, very interesting

well done mate

kjf

 

[AN DU RU FOX]

I would be over the moon if i found any,never have, would love some just(because)nice collection,atb doug

 

[TheOldGamey]

I pick up a number of cast roe antlers every year, often at pheasant feeders, sometimes the dogs bring them back because of the smell on them, but the best story I have regarding cast antlers is. A number of years ago my employer took me to a pheasant shoot a few miles north of here, and apart from assisting him, I had a dog with me to pick-up.
On one of the drives, a pheasant he hit, went well back, and I headed off to see if I could find it, after the bird was retrieved, and I was walking back along a sheep path, I spotted a cast roe antler lying on the ground, as I was busy, I stuck it in my pocket, and thought nothing of it, and never showed it to the boss.
Next year my boss was back at the shoot, on his own, but called in to see me on his way home, what a surprise when he handed over a cast roe antler he had picked up while at the shoot. At once I could see it was the match to the one I picked up the year before. The one I picked is the well coloured one, and the one that lay for a year was bleached white with the sun.
I think you would have more chance of winning the lottery, than picking up a set of antlers a year apart, on only two shooting days !

 

[AN DU RU FOX]

nice one,

 

[shotguntom]

Fantastic collection, well done.

 

[AntlerHunter]

great story, roe are hard to find, so small. you can stain them using potassium permangonate. Cheers for all the possitive comments guys. Apreciate it.

 

[tarponhead]

If you find an antler on ground that is not yours and you take it home, is that classed as poaching? I haven't done it but wondered, as the regs talk about any part of a deer.

 

[JohnT]

There was a thread/question about this a little while ago. AFAIR, the general consensus was that it was.

 

[XYZ]

I've found a few roe and a red but my best was a fallow antler.
I beat on a pheasant shoot in the New Forest and on one particular drive I had a certain place to be at the far end of the beating line.
It was on the edge of a conifer plantation and I had done the same job every shoot day.
On the last day of the season the beating line was halted and as I waited I looked into the woods to see the next beater and there at head height was a decent fallow antler hung up in a tree.
I must've walked past it at least half a dozen times and never noticed it until that last day.
Needless to say I took it home with me.

 

[xbilly]

Looking on the pics (good sized wild stag, are they from Derbyshire moorlands?) it looks like they go from double brow points to singles brows, to one pair with one of each. I have only dealt with parkland reds but the double/single or one of each 'set up' seems to follow on year after year in individual stags, hence the culling of stags without the doubles. Or have I got that wrong?
Found quite a few fallow antler about the woods but always seems to be in the winter when the sun, squirrels and other deer have all had a go at them
Billy

 

[bev270]

Well done, your very lucky

 

[Border]

Found a nice 5 point elk antler many years ago on the edge of a marsh. Pristine condition, they are often nibbled on by rodents as a source of minerals.

 

[cyberstag]

Nice antlers and well done for finding them. What I find interesting is that it looks like he missed his bey tine on the right antler for 3 years before getting one on the fourth. that is if the antlers are in the order of age that I think they are. You hear a lot of talk about why deer will miss bey tines, some say it is due to stress in that year. Presumably nutritional stress would be contributory but probably not the only cause. Some call the bey tine the wolf tine; in the Carpathians where the deer have very cold winters and both wolves and bears to contend with then that would correlate to stress I would think. Many of my Eastern european reds exhibit this trait; some years they have bey tines, some years they don't. Some are worse than others, some never miss at all.
I have 11 years of antlers from one stag but of course they were cut not cast.

 

[TOMMO.B]

My dog finds them. fences and jumps are where they fall most. They make lovely candle holders.
ATB Tommy

 

[ruby tuesday]

Its a funny thing but in my area I guess fallow out number the roe 10 to 1,but ive still found more cast roe antlers than I have fallow.