14 Nebraskaland • August-September 2020
Fun with antlers, especially when you involve a young
hunter, can occur long after the buck is harvested. Here are
some options for your trophy, regardless of its size.
Scoring Antlers
"What did he score?" is the typical question asked after a
nice buck has been harvested. The more mass, tine length,
and symmetry a deer has, the higher the score. Excellent
resources for this process can be found at fieldandstream.com
and Boone-crockett.org, the latter even provides an online
score calculator. Once you get used to the process, scoring one
rack will turn into scoring even more.
Easy European Mounts
Bury the skull in the garden, wrap aluminum foil around
the antlers to help with rodents, and come back in a couple
months. The skull will decompose to the point that, if it's a
warm autumn, you can finish the clean-up portion before
winter. For me, this step involves a dedicated Crock-Pot filled
with water and a cap full of fabric softener. Once cooked
for 24 hours, cut off any remaining pieces of flesh and set
outside to dry in the sun.
Once the rack is dry, you have some decisions to make.
Depending on the minerals in the ground where it was
buried, the skull will have a particular color to it. If you want
the skull bleached white, use hydrogen peroxide for 24 hours
and then let it dry in the sun. Quite often, I go with the
natural, rustic color that the ground gives the skull.
My last step is placing a couple of dryer lint sheets up
the nasal cavity of the buck. As you experiment with this
process, you'll find what works for you as well.
It can be messy if you don't allow the bugs to do most
of the work for you when the skull is buried, but there's no
reason that a buck harvested during the early part of archery
season can't be a finished product, like the one pictured, by
the time the ground freezes.
Rattling Antlers
Cut a set of antlers at the base, preferably a 4-by-4 or
larger. Next, drill a small hole through the side of each of the
bases and attach them to each other with thin rope.
Crafts
From writing pens to art, deer antlers can be used for a
variety of purposes. Pinterest will give you a starting point
for ideas — your imagination will provide the rest.
When a young hunter sees all of the projects that can be
accomplished with a set of antlers, there's a good chance that
young hunter will want to build even more — thus, a hunting
partner long into the future.
ANTLER OPTIONS
By Jeff Kurrus
IN THE FIELD
PHOTO
BY
JEFF
KURRUS
