Mike, I’ve been hearing a lot about deadhead bucks lately, what are they? –Jill, Pennsylvania Jill: A deadhead is the commonly used term for a buck deer carcass, that somebody finds in the woods. Unlike single antlers, which all bucks naturally lose each year before growing new ones, a deadhead’s rack is still attached to the skull. Generally the buck has been dead for several months and been ravaged by weather and predators; all that might remain is the head, spine, other bones and some old hide and hair. A deadhead buck might have died of any number of causes: hit by a car and ran off a died…shot and lost by a hunter the previous season…winter kill…predator kill…or a [...]

If you want to sell a stack of shed deer or elk antlers, how much are they worth? How much cash can you get for them? For starters, it depends on the condition and grade of the sheds: Grade A: Antler in perfect condition, brown and beautiful, with no fading…no broken tines or chew marks…this year’s drop, antler picked up within a few weeks or months.   Grade B: Antler in good condition, still natural brown color, may be dull or faded on one side and slightly weathered, probably last year’s drop. May have slight broken tine or chip.   Grade C: Antler faded and weathered to white and chalky, maybe some green and chewed on by rodents, on the ground for [...]

One time on a cold, steely day in January, I sat in a tree hoping for last-ditch crack at a buck, or at least a shot at one more doe for the freezer. As the gray blanket of dusk settled into the grain field I watched, an 8-point buck snuck out of the timber, nose to the wind, wary after four months of human intrusion in his woods. Satisfied the coast was clear, the survivor took a few more steps and hooked a sapling on the field edge. That’s when the left side of his rack fell off his head. In all my years in the woods, I had run across a few one-antlered bucks, but this was the first [...]

Hunting from one stand on and off for a month last fall, I saw 12 different bucks. Most were small, two were borderline shooters that I passed and one 9-pointer was 150-class. Hot after a doe one day, the giant rolled off the ridge across from me and crashed down into a slough, out of muzzleloader range and moving too fast for a shot. All I could do was sit and gawk his tall tines, brassy like butter knives in the sun. The season came and went, and I never saw him again. I didn’t shoot any buck from the stand, and that is all right. Getting skunked sometimes is part of the game. Just the other day I went [...]