Timberjack is doing well!

Thanks to everyone for the calls and e-mails. Today, Timberjack looks great. He came over and ate leaves this morning and seemed to say thanks for cutting off those antlers.



For those of you that didn't know, we removed Timberjack's antlers on Sunday. While doing our normal rounds of feeding, TJ just didn't look quite right. He has looked miserable for the last 6 weeks but Sunday, he was really laboring! With all the trouble the big antlered bucks were having and dealing with all the problems with BamBam and Highway 10, we decided to take them off. It was quite a job and the blood was still flowing pretty good. I worried about him all day but by Sunday evening he was back on his feet but a little shaky. By Monday he was much better and today he was back to normal eating and grazing for longer than usual! We all feel a lot better.



We scored the antlers very conservatively at 439 7/8. We only counted 56 points and left many smaller blunter points un-measured. We also didn't count his huge drop on the left except for one point. If the velvet peeled back , there may have been more. I haven't weighed the cutoffs but they are very heavy. With all the weight being to the front, I'm sure they were really straining the back of his neck!



Anyway I just wanted everyone to know! - THANKS AGAIN!

Thanks again everybody!



Dan had to put Highway 10 down last Saturday due to.....you guessed it, Antler Infection! My little friend didn't seem to remember the camera that I had brought him and left in his office........Oh Well,



He scored 323+ and had 14+ inch brows and 16+ inch g2's His mass was 58 inches. I'll post a scoresheet when I get it.



He was weak but doing much better.....

I think that with these big deer that have a lot of weight on their heads, they tend to scrape the ground while eating, lay their heads down while resting and have a lot more contact with foreign matter. Of course that scrapes up the antlers and allows bacteria to enter through the velvet. It also allows flies to get in and lay eggs. (Yuck).



I think with Timberjack the weight was all towards the front and he started resting his head on his drops on the ground. I know BamBam and Highway 10 were also resting their heads by placing the antlers on the ground. I’m not sure about Sudden Impact but I would suspect he was doing the same thing!