My favorite display.

[archer66]

I was hunting for points in a creek on our place last winter, found two nice points, and then stumbled upon these two bucks locked together. They had been there a while and were badly decomposed. I called the Conservation Department and they gave me a salvage permit to possess the racks. A friend of mine has a Dermestid Beetle colony so he put the skulls in with them for cleaning. The final product is one of my favorite displays.

 

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[11KBP]

Very impressive!

Not that I wish to see two deer die in that manner but I have always thought such a rare find would make a nice display similar to the one you have made.

11KBP

 

[Tnmountains]

Nice display. They often get locked but you just never see it let alone find it. Nice looking display of..
I guess you would call that battle heads and points.
TnMtns

 

[mainer]

Too bad they had to go out that way. Love how the display looks. Very creative.

 

[archer66]

I am an absolute nut when it comes to deer antlers. I had trailcamera pictures of one of the bucks and was hoping to see him grow a few years but while I hated to see two up and coming bucks die like that on our farm, I was thrilled to find them and get a chance to collect the antlers. I just think deer antlers and artifacts go well naturally together.

 

[Charmin]

archer--that is one of the neatest displays I've seen. We are crazy for deer sheds, too, and have found quite a few and even a matching set or two. But never a locked pair of bucks!! It looks great with your artifacts!
sandcreek

 

[Treefrog]

thats awesome, I know a guy here that killed a deer (something like a 9 pt) that was dragging a dead deer (like a 7 pt) still attached to his antlers and dragging him walking backwards.

 

[ohio]

Killer, since you had access to the bugs you were really able to do it right.
Chuck

 

[Dirtfan]

Cool mount. It happens more often than we think. My taxidermist brother inlaw mounted a pair for a guy. In life like action. The mount had to be displayed in a corner.

 

[GroundS.KeepeR]

That is ver cool

 

[KYshooter]

A salvage permit to possess the racks? Where in the heck do you live? Never heard of such a thing ...

 

[archer66]

A salvage permit to possess the racks? Where in the heck do you live? Never heard of such a thing ...

I live in Missouri. Shed antlers can be possessed without permit but anything from a dead deer must have either the hunting permit from when the deer was shot or in the case of found deer a salvage permit is required.

 

[GopherDaGold]

Very nice display, you do us Show Me Sate boys proud! Looks great with the artifacts!
But git that dang digital picture frame off that table!

 

[archer66]

Ha....that was a gift from my wife, how about if I put pics of deer and artifacts on it?? What did ya think of the turtles?? One is male and the other is female. Can ya guess which?

 

[WhiteCountyPaleo]

Nice! Just one question, Are they still locked? If
it was me I wouldn't even try to see if they
would come apart. That is cool!

 

[Th3rty7]

Good looking display there archer.

 

[archer66]

I found them locked together dead in a creek....they had fallen and one of them had hooked his antler under a tree root that went underground on both ends. All of the bark was shredded off of the root from the bucks trying to get free of it to get on their feet. It looked like they had done a lot of flopping around trying to get away and one had a broken neck. After I cut the heads away from the rest of the carcass and got them home I tried to pull them apart so that skinning them out would be easier but they wouldn't come apart without putting some serious pressure on the the antler tines. I ended up leaving them together and had my son hold them so the skulls weren't touching so I could get a filet knife in between to slice off the hide and most of the flesh underneath. Now that they've dried I can probably get them apart with a small amount of effort but now that all of the connective tissue is gone they are a bit fragile and I don't want to mess with them. I broke one of the nasal bones off while mounting them on the pedestal....thank goodness for superglue.

 

[Tnmountains]

I love the horns also and run a lot of trail cams. I carry a lap top with me to download the pictures to look at real quick. Crazy fun for sure Archer. : )

 

[WhiteCountyPaleo]

Good thing they didn't separate!

 

[GopherDaGold]

Ha....that was a gift from my wife, how about if I put pics of deer and artifacts on it?? What did ya think of the turtles?? One is male and the other is female. Can ya guess which?

I suppose that would be ok, I just thought it looked so unnatural near such a rustic display.
Saw the turtles, can't even venture to guess which is which