An Oldie but a Goodie

[Stone_Ice_1]

Went to set up my cameras this past weekend and stumbled across this old shed. I wish I had a picture of the before to show you what was actually visible but I didn't really think it was an antler and was just another "antlery" looking stick. The only thing sticking out of the ground was the base and a small part of the main beam that is white on the back side. I was about to step on it when I saw it and have probably walked by or stepped on this thing a minimum of 10 times over the years. I gave it a yank and realized the brow tines were moving dirt next to it. Unfortunately when I gave it a yank I broke off the last 2 points at the main beam. I dug it up as best as I could, as the last points were about 3 feet down into the dirt. The main beam is missing approximately 6 more inches on the end that I couldn't find but from the deteoriation it appears it was there when the antler was dropped. Pictures don't do this thing justice as it has some serious mass. YOu can see part of the hole I had to dig it out of in this picture.


I am guessing this thing must be 15 years old or more. Any ideas?

When I first found it I thought maybe it was a mountain lion kill or something, but there were no other bones or hair around that I could find. The dirt wasn't solid dirt, it was about 2.5 feet of forest duff, pine needles, decaying matter that had roots in it (as you can see in the picture that were up to about the size of a nickel). Its been suggested to me that this thing could be decades old and I basically have a fossil in my hands.

Either way a cool find and I may try and fix it up with some bondo and paint.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

A couple more pictures after I got home.


Just wish this antler could tell me its stories...

 

[OntarioHunter]

Is it a Roosevelt elk? The shape and mass look like it might be.

Here's a badly damaged and vandalized deadhead I picked up back in '65 or '66. I rebuilt it and daughter did the paintjob. Gives you some idea what can be done.View attachment 185328

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

Is it a Roosevelt elk? The shape and mass look like it might be.

Is it a Roosevelt elk? The shape and mass look like it might be.

Here's a badly damaged and vandalized deadhead I picked up back in '65 or '66. I rebuilt it and daughter did the paintjob. Gives you some idea what can be done.View attachment 185323View attachment 185324View attachment 185325View attachment 185326View attachment 185327View attachment 185328View attachment 185329

Its not a Roosevelt, found in Montana. It does sort of take that shape. I was 20 yards from one 2 years ago near this area that had this same shape and size (definitely not the same bull) during archery but as it goes archery things happened and no shot was taken. Genetics are still in the area apparently.

I painted one a few years ago that was white but this one will be a different kind of challenge because of its age and state. That's a nice buck.

 

[OntarioHunter]

Its not a Roosevelt, found in Montana. It does sort of take that shape. I was 20 yards from one 2 years ago near this area that had this same shape and size (definitely not the same bull) during archery but as it goes archery things happened and no shot was taken. Genetics are still in the area apparently.

I painted one a few years ago that was white but this one will be a different kind of challenge because of its age and state. That's a nice buck.

That buck came from the Flathead Valley. I would suggest bleaching yours first with peroxide to get rid of the iron red. Then colour as needed. Go with the antler repair stuff that McKenzie sells. It's a better colour to work with than bondo red or blue. A cheaper knockoff kit is sold on Amazon but it is junk. I used a variety of stains and paints to get the right colour. PM me if interested in the restoration process. Glad to help.

 

[antlerradar]

I would be leaning towards the decades old. I would not be at all surprised if it is over 50 years old.
I have found close to a dozen elk sheds in SE Montana in the 80's and 90's that were from elk that lived prior to market hunters eliminating elk from SE Montana. One was a giant seven point half buried in the duff in thick juniper. When I tried to pick it up, I pulled the antler in half it was so rotten.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I would be leaning towards the decades old. I would not be at all surprised if it is over 50 years old.
I have found close to a dozen elk sheds in SE Montana in the 80's and 90's that were from elk that lived prior to market hunters eliminating elk from SE Montana. One was a giant seven point half buried in the duff in thick juniper. When I tried to pick it up, I pulled the antler in half it was so rotten.

Similar to what happened here. If you look closely at the pictures you can see the crack after the 4th and 5th points. It broke completely off there when I tried to pull it up. I just placed it in the right spot for the pictures. The other side looks worse in that spot, gonna require some work fixing up there.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

With some down time in the winter months I have gotten around to working on this antler a bit. These first pictures are after I got it cleaned up. It had a fair amount of dirt and roots inside the main beam where the hole is. I cleaned it out as good as I could and then got off the dirt and other bit of nastiness off the rest of the antler as well as I could. I didn't want to use anything too strong like bleach to whiten it since these old antlers aren't in the best shape to start with. They are still pretty strong but I'm afraid some bleach or even a long soak in Oxy would start breaking them down.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

The next step I don't seem to have any pictures of. I swear I took one. I used a metal rod and glued it in the hole with several coats of gorilla glue to give it some strength. It was a 1/2" diameter metal rod that was hollow. This was to give it some strength at the spot where the top 2 points broke off.

After that I used bondo, and over a couple of different applications I was able to fill the hole that remained and fill in a few other gaps. There was one spot on the "extra" 7th point that something had chewed on it just a bit so I gave that a touch up too.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

Next, as I mentioned somewhere earlier in this thread I could not find the last few inches of the main beam. So I will build the last 5-6 inches of that. My plan was to use the remaining bondo I had left from fixing up the main beam. But to do that I need something for the bondo to attach to and that will give it some strength. After searching around my garage for something suitable I decided on this...

It is screwed into the main beam and then glued in using the trusty gorilla glue.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

And my end result after using the bondo to create the end of the main beam is this. So now it is ready to be passed off to the girlfriend to be painted as she is much more of an artist than I am.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

Finally got this thing done. It has been sitting around waiting for some color for quite some time. Turned out pretty good. Trying to figure out where to put it on display now.