My brother in law shot this buck off our Buffalo, Texas lease......Its a 10 (with a broken point) plus a small drop tine......so depending on how you veiw the topic......a 10 or 11pt..... ANYWAY, I heard it was a beetle of some kind that gets in the horns during velvet......is that right ?

Yep your right and they must be in alot of states. Ive seen deer from other states that have these too. I actually shot a buck this weekend that had a good size hole next to his G3.

Now that is just crazy

I just read something that said a fly may do it /......I have no idea.

Shot an old 8 pt last year that had a hole.. looked just like that...i just thought it grew that way...learned something new

Wow, I have never heard of that. I agree with Brady, we learn something new all the time!

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I just read something that said a fly may do it

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I've heard that. I've also heard it could be a thorn that got stuck in there early and it grew around it. What i suspect is theres a small area that go damaged and died and the rest just kept on growing. Kinda like a belly button.

good pic!

Don't shoot it in the horns!!

Actually, that is a car whistle. It helps prevent car/deer collisions by creating a high pitched noise that scares cars and makes em run off the road. OK...I give. I got no ideer what that hole is all about!

Dave S

The hole is so they can sift the corn out of the feeder easier.

Someone needs to elaborate on this because I have never herd of that either.

I have no idea what causes this but I think that the Beetle theory is the best answer. I used to see this alot when I hunted in Fairfield (not far from Buffalo), but now that I hunt out west I have yet to see a buck with this kind of hole in the horns.I know that there are some out west like this but from my experience it is more common in the eastern part of the state.

I dont know if the beetle theory is correct or not, but if it is a beetle that causes this then I would bet that this beetle is more common in the east than the west based on my experience.

so with all the knowledge on this site, the web, google.........we don't actually know ? IMPOSSIBLE !

Its a muzzle loader for deer to shoot back. Looks like a 30 cal. LOL

Found this on another website. Seems to agree with what others have said here. There could be a few causes.

A fairly common antler aberration is a hollow, or tube, usually in the main beam. Again, there is some conjecture as to the cause, but it is somehow related to a minor injury during antler growth. If the velvet is scraped off by a stick or fence barb, the antler will continue to grow around this spot, creating a tube. It is also suggested that insects could cause injury to growing antlers, creating this deformation.

Another surprising quality of antlers is their memory. More often than not, once an antler has taken on an aberrant form or characteristic, that characteristic will remain is subsequent antlers, even after the injury has healed! Many hunters and biologists have used this fact to identify an individual buck in successive seasons.

I shot a nine point with a broken g3 and broken kicker right next the broken g3. Right next to the kicker was a small hole, smaller than the one pictured.

What Im taking from this is that the deer I shot and the one your brother shot both had broken tines so probably, dominant/aggressive deer.

So the hole could have come from an injury of some sort in our cases.

I shot a buck 3 years back with a hole in the side of his G7....just kidding:) It was a hole in his G3. The taxidermist stated it was either from a mesquite thorn or a stick was embedded while in velvet and the antler grew around. He actually carved a little out of the hole with his knife...looked like a stick.

that is pretty strange

My brother shot a deer last weekend with the same hole in the antler and I shot one this weekend with a hole in the antler. We were hunting in Live oak county.

Where about in Live Oak County? How has the action been this year for yall? Any news on the rut. We STILL have not seen true rutting action going on. Maybe it was early...maybe it will be way late.