Antler Party 2021

[Okanagan]

Our family got together for our 6th or 7th (or more?) annual antler party a couple of weeks ago. Good time, great food, great tales and the biggest bunch of us ever.  19 men gathered in a cousin’s garage, including my 2 year old great grandson.  Each winter after the end of the main hunting seasons we get together for a finale on the season.  We bring antlers and hides, swap tales and eat pizza and wild game.



My grandsons are expanding their horizons and four of them brought back a lot of whitetail meat and antlers from a foray to Oklahoma.  One of my grandsons made friends with a fellow from Oklahoma while they were job training in New Mexico.  They did some coyote calling in their free time and the friend invited him and his brothers to come to Oklahoma and hunt with him.



I didn't keep a close tab on critters tagged as the stories unfolded, but it was a bunch this year, though low on elk for a change.  There were 4 or 5 blacktail deer, 5 whitetails, 4 or 5 mule deer, 2 black bears, 2 antelope, one Roosevelt elk and one cougar.  Several big antlers though none made any records.  One of the antelope was well over 16 inches.  All hunts were unguided do-it-yourself, though friends helped a lot.  I think the pic below is of bobcat, cougar and black bear skulls, but am  not positive.



We ate game meat in many forms, from roast to various kinds of sausages, jerky, stews, etc.  I made a huckleberry pie that went down well with Umpqua French Vanilla ice cream.







We did a lot of laughing and ribbing as we heard stories of excellent shooting, superb tracking a couple of times, one story of better luck than the shooter deserved, and my story of a miracle buck whose miracle was that I missed him. 



I took some pics as people started to come in, then got busy and missed getting pics of all the antlers.

[nastygunz]

 Now that looks like my kind of place !

[Yotehntr]

Good times right there!   

[Todd Rahm]

That’s an awesome family tradition right there!!!

[bambam]

Awesome !  Good food , family, and nice trophies . 

[pitw]

Dang that looked like a most fun evening that probably hurt later.

[KySongDog]

Great family fun. You are very fortunate.   

[msmith]

Nice! Good eats and great times.