ANTLER ASYMMETRY
You have hunted that special spot for years, maybe even decades, and killed some nice bucks, but have yet to see that true once-in- a-lifetime giant. But early this fall you captured a trail camera image of a legitimate record book class deer — a “Booner!” — and you’re beyond fired up!
As hunting season approached, you put in countless hours of patterning that buck — you developed a plan, constructed the perfect treestand setup, and then waited for conditions to be just right. The moment finally arrives and you make the perfect shot on that once-in-a-lifetime buck! Once the excitement wears down, you measure the antlers and sure enough, the gross score is well above the minimum required for entry into the record books. Later, the rack is officially scored, and you find out that deductions dropped the final net score several inches below the minimum, leaving you frustrated and disappointed.
Most of us have spent time looking at, even obsessing over, sets of antlers. We’ve all heard those stories about that monster buck that somehow didn’t make the record books because the net score wasn’t quite good enough, or we’ve seen that odd-looking buck with massive main beams and long tines on one side and a spike on the other.
Whether they were from that last buck you shot, the pictures of giants you see every month in Deer & Deer Hunting magazine, or that matching pair of sheds from the buck that got away, you might have wondered why there
