Joe from New Jersey says: Mike: Here is the 13-pointer that I took last season. I have been hunting NJ for 30 years and this is the second biggest deer I have taken. Does it qualify as a drop tine or double drop???—Joe Great buck man, but I can’t give you either one. That’s the left main beam tipping down; and the sticker shooting straight out is cool, but not a drop.
Hope you’ve been following our recent string of unicorn buck posts, I believe we’re compiling the most/best info on this unusual topic. Thanks to Wren for this most recent photo from Texas: Mike, this skull was found by a neighbor close to where Jake Steen shot his unicorn buck (scroll down below). Thought the skull would really help folks understand this phenomenon. Yes, it shows the growth as well as I’ve seen it. Scientists say a unicorn tine is caused by trauma to the front facial bone, such as (and most likely I reckon) a tine puncture from another buck. Most of the unicorn tines I’ve seen (in pictures, never seen one in the wild) sprout from the bone area [...]
Last fall the guys down at Clark Brothers gun shop recommended I try Blackhorn 209 loads in my new Thompson Center Triumph. Designed for 209 primer in-line rifles, it’s a high-performance propellant that delivers accurate loads with superior velocity and energy. Plus, in this test, it blew away the competition as far as igniting in damp or wet weather. Another big thing, Blackhorn is a low-residue powder that burns hotter and cleaner than Pyrodex, Triple 7 and others. It is supposedly so clean that you can shoot some 22 to 40 shots at the range all morning without wiping the bore once, and still shoot accurate groups. I don’t know about the 20 shots, or all morning, but in the [...]
Got this awhile back from Jon, who hunts on the river in both Minnesota and Wisconsin: Attached are a few pictures of bucks that were killed last year in the area I hunt. Three 160-plus bucks were all shot within 500 yards of our lease in Goodue Co. (Minn.). The 170-incher we called Zilla (above) was a buck we had been watching for a while. My brother in law Jake had him at less than 30 yards on Nov. 1st, but wasn't able to get a shot at him. I think if he knew it was a 170" he would have emptied his quiver at it! Don’t feel bad Jake at least you got to see him! The second pic [...]
Rare as they are, we’ve got unicorn bucks coming out the woodwork; look close and you’ll see the uni cutting up inside the left beam: Mike: Saw the blog this morning. Here is a pic of a buck we named "Unibrow" from our cameras two seasons ago. He has a third beam coming out his forehead. My brother-in-law had him at 15 yards, got excited and bounced an arrow off his shoulder blade. He's still out there, as far as we know, but we haven't seen him again.—Mark I told Mark to tell his brother-in-law no harm, no foul, we all miss with our bows. But tell him he had in fact missed a 1 in 4,000 buck. Mark wrote back, [...]