You can put them on a picture frame and enlarge a photo of him with his buck to put in it.

Or make a table lamp out of them - check out this site - their prices are quite high, but you might get some ideas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Antler Lamps, etc.

Thank you Luvs ! Boy - there's some really cool ideas at that site ! I'm sure THIS will get the creative juices flowing.

At Walmart I saw the cutest fake antler wreath for about $20. I told my DH if I find enough antlers I want a wreath just like that..without the holly and Christmas stuff :)

Kudzukween~ I saw those too. Gonna try to make one for my DB with some of his horn collection. ~Anj

If you wander around out in the woods around the end of January, you might find some shed antlers to add to your collection. Look in areas where the deer congregate and sleep. It's late January here in AR, don't know about where you live.

Lamps, a holder for a serving bowl/dish, chandelier, whatever. We like to just let them lay around, but we only use sheds. They have a more finished "end" to them. I like the wreath idea a lot!

Ok.... I have found the story of the Christmas spider of the old German woman, but I heard one of the spider where its web was used to make the baby Jesus' blanket but I can't seem to find it anywhere, and can't remember the rest of the story....Can anybody help....

Boy - I wish I could find the shed antlers ... anyone want to find them and sell them ? I'd love to add them to my little collection !

Never thought to look in the woods for shed antlers, have had deer come right to my back pourch area to drink from my pond, so many leaves, would be kinda hard to see them, but I will look, hubbys not a hunter so if I can find some, toomuchglass I would gladly send them to you for postage, you might have to remind me to go look, will ask hubby when they shad in our area.
oddie

You can find them on ebay. If you find them in the woods, they may be slightly chewed on if they're been there for a while, the squirrels will nibble on them for the minerals that are in them.

Finding horns in the woods is actually easier said than done. DH and his family spend a lot of time out there hunting and I think DH said that they have NEVER found shed horns just lying about in the woods. It's not like you're looking for a stick or acrons. They are hard to find.

Toomuchglass, I'm anxious to see what you do. I can't imagine DH letting me do something like that with his horns, especially a ten point because they are not easy to find around here anymore! DH got an 8 point 3 years ago and it's hanging on the living room wall. He got another a few years before that and the horns hang above his dresser in the bedroom and he often uses them for a hat rack, which drives me insane! LOL

Not to be argumentative, but we find sheds all the time in mid - late winter, Jan/Feb. One year we found 2 matching sets in the same clearing on our property and 3 or 4 singles, all during one week. We even found one right next to the salt block. By watching the deer at feeding time thru binoculars, we had an idea of when to start looking- all of a sudden the bucks had no antlers on their heads, so we thought "now's a good time to go look for sheds!" You do have to be looking for them- find areas where they bed down, or look in feed plots. It could be that hunters don't find them earlier in the year because they aren't ready to drop off yet, around here only bow hunters are in the woods when the antlers are shed.

Maybe it depends on where you live? In central PA, there aren't A LOT of bucks, let alone larger ones. The Game Commission says they have the deer population ALMOST under control but I have to tell you there aren't many deer out there at all! We used to go spotting at night and see a hundred within 10 miles of our house in fields, now we see maybe half of that....

I just looked it up and they shed their horns between Jan and April. DH would be out in the woods at the end of April for Spring Gobbler so he would come across them. He hunts turkey in the same areas as he hunts deer. His family also owns 200 acres of land that they hunt on and we ride four wheelers and hike through throughout the year. It's pretty busy up there yet we haven't found any horns or anything in all of our travels and there are buck up there or they wouldn't have just got the ones they did in deer season.

(Shrug) I don't know.....

if you're into playing cribbage , why not drill holes to play this game and display it on a table as a conversation piece too?

Boy - that's a NOVEL idea ! MY DH loves cribbage !!!

Hi all -- I wandered over to this forum and got very interested in this thread! I weave baskets as one of my hobbies... baskets woven with antlers as the "handle" are very artistic/decorative -- although I've only ever seen photos of them before!

It recently occurred to me that I have some new co-workers who hunt deer and I debated asking one of them for any antlers that he or his friends wouldn't be keeping. I got the impression that hunters don't like to give them up (treated as a trophy, I guess). That's fine, because quite frankly it makes me squeamish to think of weaving on an antler that was 'got' like that.

flamingo_in_ar: I had never heard of shed antlers before! I thought that deer just rubbed fluff off or something like that. lol! And you say that you have lots?! I wouldn't have the least bit hesitation to weave on a shed antler (as if I could identify one antler from the other. lol!). Maybe I'll take a walk in the woods around here sometime....

When the antlers are young and growing they are covered with what is called "velvet", it's rich with blood and brings nurishment to the bone/antler. When the antler is done growing, the velvet dries up and begins to fall off and the deer rub their antlers against trees and things to speed up the process. I wonder if it's itchy? lol Anyway, they polish up their antlers and they are what you typically see. When they are shed they are full of calcium and other minerals that squirrels, rats, mice and porcupines just love, so I imagine that any antler left lying on the ground would become food to rodents pretty quickly. The pedicle end of the naturally shed antler is much more attractive than a sawn off one.

Oh, when a very young buck has tiny (small, like bumps) antlers, they are called "button bucks". When our deer Clover shed his, I had to search thru a lot of mud to find those buttons, but I did! I also have his baby teeth. lol And some of Blossom's spots, too. (Did you know that a fawn's spots are raised and you can feel them, like reading Braille?) We raised her from a 1-day old fawn, we got Clover when he was 4 months old from friends. Raising deer is hard work, but very fun and fulfilling.

Kudzukween
Our WalMart had a few of those antler wreaths on clearance with the Christmas merchandise and I got one for $10. I am thrilled to have gotten one.
snolady

I was just looking around when I seen your post. Did you ever make anything with the antlers?
Have you ever seen a dream catcher? You can check out taxidermy sites that sell dream catchers made out of antlers. They are pretty neat looking. I plan on doing that with some of ours some day.

Wish I'd gotten the wreath on clearance,but the store sold out SO FAST.....didn't even get to get anything on clearance! I have 2 sets of antlers, but I'm not going to cut them apart for the wreath. Bought 1 set in Texas, my nephew took another set away from a dog.....we have many MANY trespassers here on our property who sneak in and hunt. I've lived here all my life,nothing but trees on 90 acres,and I've never run across shed antlers. Would be nice, but never have. Walked up on many deer in my lifetime, thank goodness they all ran the opposite direction! terrified of a buck attacking me :) We've never hunted, just not our "thing",so the wild animals are free to roam. They will "roam" right up to the front yard, they drink the water from my glass butterfly bowls and birdbaths.

My 2 1/2 yr old son recently found a young deer antler on a hike with his dad. We would like to display it in his room. Is there a way to seal or preserve it? Any other suggestions? Thanks, Allison

Regarding what to do with deer antlers. Leather dye is very good for staining them, either to bring out the natural colors, or to spice them up a bit. Leather dye can be gotten in many, many colors, and with mixing, the color palette is almost endless. I have always used water-soluble polyurethane, followed up with Johnson's paste floor wax, which is high in carnauba. Antlers can be polished to a pretty high degree of shine. Start with the finest grade of sandpaper that will cut the roughness that you are trying to remove, then go to increasingly finer paper, then to polishing paste. Don't try to skip stages with the sanding, as you will end up with grooves and scratches under the polish. It's a bit slow, but faster than having to start over. Sandpaper is graded by the amount of abrasive particles in a given area, so the lower the number, the rougher the paper. After cutting the antler with a fine saw, 280 is a good size to knock the high spots off with, then 320, then 400, then 600, then polish paste. Mother's Mag and Aluminum Polish is excellent, and a tiny bit on a rag goes a long way. I'm still using the same 5 oz. jar I got 5 years ago, with most of it left. Good luck with the antlers!

They are antlers not horns! Horns never fall off antlers do. But ne way can make knife handles lamps chandelears post etc

bump

I have about a dozen or so mule deer antlers and an elk antler. What i did is place them on a piece of old barn wood and wrap barb wire around them to hold them on. it makes a pretty nice wall piece. Other wise you can always drill them into the wood

I want a chandelier made outof antlers for our old antique log cabin,hubby goes big game hunting not so much deer,we have antelope,elk just came home with 2 carribou last nite.Hes also a builder so I bet if I fussed enough Id get it,neat conversation piece what all different horns are & where he got the animal,were into bears,pigs even fishing trips.

I've lived in NH all my life and walked and hiked in the woods a lot at all times of year, including many places where I saw lots of deer. I have never found a shed antler. However, years ago when I was in Scotland, the people we stayed with had quite a collection and they said they find them all over after the deer shed. I was very surprised since that wasn't my experience at home.

I am wondering if they last longer in some places, like AZ and Scotland. Perhaps we have more rodents that carry them away here in NH?

Kathy

BTW dh was walking our little dog last week and saw a white yearling! I'm so jealous, I would have loved to see it.

Animals chew on them I heard ..So they probably take care of them and dogs ,mine came home with a small one once.