I was told once by a master scorer(SCI) that antlers would shrink , some considerably, due to the drying time required for scoring hunted bucks. Does anyone know a % of average shrinkage after drying period is over? Just curious. Thanks in advance.
Depends on the particular antlers and how they are stored.
Actually they start shrinking as soon as velvet is rubbed off-so even antlers on a live deer are shrinking .I measured two different bucks this year once when testing then once again while collecting-a 150 class shrunk 3" inches in 6 weeks a 200 class shrunk 6" in around 8 weeks.
Some of that was due to rubbing as some deer even rub their beading smoother ect.
A friend had a head mounted and officially scored in twenty years it shrank around 8" if I recall correctly
myself and 3 others scored a set of antlers this year right after cutting them (mid 200's) and then they layed in a shop heated with a wood stove till just recently. the taxidermist scored them 11" less than the average of what the rest of us came up with. Among 4 of us we were within 3 " of each others gross score originally. I was surprised to see such a difference in the score from then till now but maybe sitting next to the wood stove for that long took its toll on them.
