Antler Party 2024 - Lotsa horns!

[Okanagan]

Each year after hunting seasons are over, the hunters in our extended family get together to look at horns and swap tales of the hunts from this past season.  My grandsons are getting old enough and affluent enough to hunt out of state a bit so are bringing back critters beyond our local blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk and black bears.



Lotsa horns at this year's Antler Party.  One black bear,five bull elk, two record book blacktail bucks plus a BUNCH of nice deer.  The deer were mostly local blacktail bucks, plus several 4x4 mule deer from "Back East" in Montana and Idaho along with some whitetails from as far east as Oklahoma.  No guides though some were on non-resident tags.



Not all of the antlers are in the pic above, nor the black bear.  At least a third of them are bow kills, including a medium sized 5x5 bull elk.  None of the three young women my grandsons have married were able to come, bummer, though some of the antlers from their bucks made it. 

Huge mule deer shed below.  Gnawed off by rodents but enormous base.

 

The two record book blacktails are below.  The one closer to the camera scores well up in the all time book.  The other, bigger  rack scores lower and makes some kind of B& C book but not the all time.




14 of us at the party, including three guests from outside the bloodline family.   One is a friend who consistently kills very good local bucks, plus we invited the blacksmith who shoes the family's pack horses along with his 14 year old daughter.  The daughter brought a big 4x4 mule deer rack she shot at 285 yards in Idaho.  Her dad brought a smallish 4x4 elk rack that he killed on the same trip.

[Hawks Feather]

Looks like a great time and a VERY impressive collection of antlers.

[FinsnFur]

Thats a lot of Antlers.
I imagine the stories flowed like flood water.

[Okanagan]

Thats a lot of Antlers.
I imagine the stories flowed like flood water.

Yep, that's the fun part.  My son missed a bunch of shots at a mule deer and finally killed it.  Very unusual for him to miss like that but he sure got razzed.  Because it was the end of the season he still hasn't test fired it to find out if the sights are off.  Didn't matter to the razzing!

One grandson was watching a football game on his phone the last day of our local season, and a buck walked right under his fairly low tree stand before he saw it.  He shot it with his bow, straight down. The arrow just missed the spine and didn't angle as much as an inch from straight down, top of back and out the bottom.  That got some razz.  I think he was hoping it would walk on but it stopped right under him so that he shot between his boots. 

A grandson in his brother's wedding party helped a friend kill a buck the day before the wedding and had to hustle to make the rehearsal.