Thread: trophy what ?

we shot this near taneatua yesterday evening what is it ?

Samba, Rusa, Fallow, Red Hybrid

Its funky looking whatever it is.
Would be a neat mount I reacon, I had the oppertunity to take a Axis in the US that was about twice the size as normal on 1 side, and about 1/2 size on the other, which would have made a cool mount.
Left it as we're going to see what becomes of it next year

Anyway, deff an interesting beasty you got there

Its a hillbilly

Has it got 3 pedicals hillbilly? it appears to have 3 coronets.
Got a pick of the cleaned skull?
If those two(it looks like 2) coronets branch off one pedical it could be that it was damaged when a juvenile. If it actually has 3 pedicals coming out of the skull that would be freakish.

a guy i know who has shot and seen moore samba then moast in nz had a look and said its deffantly not a samba so must be a rusa. looks rusa to me

se if this works between the 2 spikes is skin with no hair on it

What a seriously stuffed up and freakish looking thing that is. It certainly looks like two separate antler growths happening there. Here is a suggestion that may be plausable. In a previous year while in soft velvet, it suffered antler damage that caused the pedicle to divide which then healed into two separate beds that subsequently both sprout.

Micheal what about going up to introductions and telling us all about yourself.

Them you can come back here and explain why you were so generous as to let your younger brother shoot this deer.

Anyway 'Hillbilly' welcome to this forum and congratulations on your first post being about a such an interesting strange beastie.

So defiantly two cornets then, all that remains is the cleaned skull pics, Right get your arse out in the shed and clean that skull

Hillbilly......whoa...........that is one way out freaky head u got there mate!
Yeah I'd say definitely Rusa. (think ya did it a favour by shooting it...!)
If you got any spare steaks I'm on my way...!!

Hello Micheal, Back again with some even more interesting photos. Thats a crazy head. What will our home grown experts make of it this time.

I have to say Micheal it doesnt happen often but I am lost for words.

Wow cheers for that hillbilly
I'm no genetics expert or anything like that but I grew up on a mainly velvet farm and Iv shot my share of truly wild

While it could well be some kind of genetic defect my money would be on this poor fella suffering some sort of damage to his pedical while forming as a juvenile.

Perhaps from a fall or getting between Dad and Mum in the season or a misplaced headshot damaging the pedical.

My thoughts anyway

Got a shot from down looking up at where its left ear would be ?

Originally Posted by 7mmwsm

Looking at the bottom picture again it looks like the brow tine may have broken down through the pedicle. If the skin heeled it would have created two seperate antlers which would have then cast and gone through the velvet process as normal.

That would make sense to me 7mm. Like a "greenstick fracture" were the brow tine had broken and peeled down threw the pedical.

I was trying to post pics of a spiker with a broken pedical I shot a couple of years ago(having photobucket issues) it had broken out of the skull right at the base and was flapping around the side of his face! on skinning out the head you could see the brain cavity under where it had broken out. I very much doubt that would have healed with the antler swinging around on it for the next 6 or so months till he cast. He also had a sizable puncture wound right threw one testicle and numerous punctures in his hams.
Yep I got a look at the guy who did the damage and no i haven't managed to get back there yet

I have the feeling that he is a plain Rusa stag with a non typical head... a freak. Like a calf or a lamb born with an extra leg or a West Coast two header.

Even his other antler is non typical of the species.

When we were hunting Ohutu Ridge years ago there were a few stags there that had heads though only two antlers they spikes sticking out of them like porcipines... 20 or more points sometimes.

It was some genetic abnormality obviously..We originally thought it was frost damage I dont remember now how we came up with that conclusion.