When I had to saw Redlines rack this past summer (early August) I sent the antlers off to a freeze drying service to have them preserved. Although they lost a lot of size during the drying process, they still blew me away when I got them back from the freeze dryer a few days ago. I took them to my taxadermist to have them mounted back on Redline's skull ( he died in late October, from EHD). I got a call today, saying that he had finished reattatching the antlers, so I went to see the finished product. I took a set of replicas along with me from X- Factor at 3 yrs. old for comparison. X- Factor is one of my favorite bucks of all time, so much so, that I puchased his mother last year. When I walked in and saw Redline's horns put back on, it took my breath away, I had forgotten how big he really was. The following pics are from today 3-2-2012, with Redlines freshly repaired skull laying beside X- Factor's 3 year old replica ( X- Factor was scored at 509" at 3). Redline was 30 to 45 days from finishing out his rack when I had to remove his antlers last summer, because they were getting to heavy for him to hold his head up. ( they weighed 25.4 lbs on digital scales the day I removed them),the points were still very rounded and a long way from being finished out. He was truly an exceptional animal with an ability to push blood to his antlers like no other buck that I have never seen. We are fortunate to have several does out of him and plan to make some great crosses with them in the next few years. Congradulations to the breeders who had enough foresight to know that they were looking at something special in Redline. Only a handful of three year old bucks in the history of our industry can compare to what Redline put on his head.It was a privelage to have him on our farm. Darren 10286:097.
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