Son seeks history of unexpected find after the passing of his father.
QUESTION: My father recently passed away, and I was sorting through his belongings when I came across a set of antlers that I didn’t know he had. I never knew of him hunting outside Oklahoma. However, he did travel to Arizona once a year to preach at a youth camp. I’m sure he would have told me if he shot this buck, so I don’t think this is the case, but possibly someone gave the antlers to him. It would be an impressive set for a Coues deer, or extremely small for an Oklahoma whitetail. Would be nice to know for sure. I will attach some pictures. Please let me know what you think.
ANSWER: First, our condolences. Short of some sort of DNA testing it would be difficult to say what the situation is here, especially not knowing the rack’s origin.
If it is a Coues deer (pronounced cowz and named for naturalist-historian Elliot Coues), it is indeed very impressive. But don’t let the size fool you. While we generally expect young bucks to sport spikes or fork horns, some will occasionally grow larger racks with more points, especially in areas with good nutrition.
A couple things jump out here suggesting that may not be the case. One is the non-typical points, which more commonly occur on older deer. The other is the relative mass of the bases and how it is carried well out in the beams. Yearlings tend to have rather narrow bases and beams. I would suggest you try to find an official scorer more familiar with Coues deer and the other, smaller races of whitetails. They may be able to provide more insight.
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