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Possible NT B&C Book Buck?????

wilecoyote76

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Yep, you guessed it! Many of you might recall the winter kill buck my brother picked up last fall while deer hunting here in Idaho. Well, he had it officially scored by a B&C measurer and got the results back this week. His find gets to enter the B&C record books as a non-typical at 230 6/8". It just squeaked in there but he is excited to say the least.

The net typical frame was about 180" (189+ gross) so he had 50+" of non-typical inches. The mass helped a bunch on the typical side of it with 46+" in circumference measurements. It had 10 points on the left, 14 on the right.

Here are some pictures in case you missed the post way back when....
 

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Such a sweet find. Ever figure how long it sat for?

Spitz, I don't think anybody really knows. I would guess between 10 and 25 years. He found them under a big pine tree in thick brush so it was sheltered from most of the weather. I will have to ask him if the scorer suggested an age on them. He plans on restoring them and getting a head mount done though. It should make a nice conversation piece nonetheless.
 
I still cannot beleive that thing sat out there that long. My luck, a squirrel would have had those down to the pedicles.
 
Gotta love mass AND palmation!!
I found two sheds in Utah all chewed down to within 3 inches of the pedicle about a mile apart. White as chalk and pretty old. The bases were as big around as a man's wrist with all kinds of star-points growing out of the pedicles. No idea if it was a matching set -not enough there to tell. I would have given anything to see that set the way it was. (I was told to leave any skulls or sheds I found in Utah, and that could get busted if I tried to take them home. Anyone know if this is true or not?) Great find for your brother. This is a moot point, but how wide is he? As if that matters- he was one heck of a buck. DD
 
Unless buried, I'd guess that rack to be no more than 5 years old. That's a number I just pulled out of my ear. I've gone back a year after a kill and checked on what's left of the bones and skull. They really deteriorate quickly from what I've seen.

It's remarkable that most of the points are intact.
 
Unless buried, I'd guess that rack to be no more than 5 years old. That's a number I just pulled out of my ear. I've gone back a year after a kill and checked on what's left of the bones and skull. They really deteriorate quickly from what I've seen.

It's remarkable that most of the points are intact.

I agree with T-bone on the 5. It's an absolute pig of a buck, great find..
 
I was told to leave any skulls or sheds I found in Utah, and that could get busted if I tried to take them home. Anyone know if this is true or not?)
Yes that's true, sorta. Anything attached to the skull plate must be left. I've heard you can take a LEO with you and possibly get a permit to pick it up, but I don't know anyone that has. Shed can be picked up if the pedicle is showing.
 
Thats an awesome rack. It will look great restored and mounted.

I'll bet that rack is 25-30+ years old... likely more. It takes about 5 years for them to start to get a little cracked and chalky, and to get entirely chalky like this one... we're talking decades. Antlers somewhat sheltered from the sun will last a long, long time even in the woods. Sunlight and UV rays are what breaks down bone/anter. Also lichens are very slow growing and take a long time to establish themselves, if I remember right they only grow at something like 2-3mm per year.

My grandma has a 'sheep hearders monument' in thier back yard (pile of elk and deer antlers about 6-7' high 5-6' around), it was built with the antlers found on the ranch about 1900 or so... The antlers are falling appart on the outide of the pile, but some of the ones that are sheltered in the center are not a whole lot worse off than this one.

Once antlters get dried out they really aren't to atractive to rodents.
 
coyote.....was it measured as is, or did they estimate what some of those broken points would've scored? Just amazes me that thing scored that high.....imagine what it would have scored on the hoof! Awesome buck....awesome find. Look forward to seeing it restored.
 
Muleyslyr, it was scored as is, nothing added for missing points.

DD, this buck was 27 something main-frame, 33+ at the widest point. I will get the specifics when I talk to my bro next.
 
Thanks for the return Wile... with a buck like that, width doesn't matter. I'm more impressed with how much bone he grew. I've been around for a while and I've found hundreds of skulls and sheds, but for the life of me I still can't devise a surefire way to tell how how long they've been laying around.
Temperture extremes and sun does them in pretty quick. What's worse is moisture and wind-driven dryness; if exposed to all 4 elements, all you'll have is a pile of calcium in less than 3 or 4 years. If a buck dies in heavy cover or under a cedar or evergreen, his skull and antlers can last a long time;20-30 years or more until the critters find it.
 
You're right there is no surefire way to age them, we can speculate, but they last a whole lot longer than most people realize. Most antlers will still be hard white after 4-5 years. Some will get eat'n, some that are exposed in harsh conditions won't last long, while others can linger nailed to the side of a barn for 100 years or more. I know lots of people that have sheds laying in their yards and in their flower beds and I know for a fact they've been there nearly 30 years some for longer than that. They get watered all the time, are exposed to the sun etc...

Another example is the antler arches in Jackson Hole... They were built in the 1950s. last time I saw them, which was about 4 years ago, most of them were chalky, but some were still hard white with some cracks. I think they replaced them last year though.

The Lichens, like I said, are a dead give away of age. It takes many, many years to get established and then they grow at an extreamly slow rate.
 
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