10-point buck with a cracked skull causes intrigue

St. Joseph News Press

STEWARTSVILLE, Mo. -- The buck had a massive headache, and Shane Lawson provided the ibuprofen.

Lucky to still be alive on the opening day of the 2002 rifle season, the 10-pointer harvested by Lawson had spent the last couple of months roaming the countryside with a broken skull.

What adds to this mystery is there were no apparent other injuries to the animal, with the exception of a badly cracked cranium.

The right antler set was leaning down about 1/2 inch, making the buck appear to Lawson while in the woods to be missing half his antlers.

"From a distance, it didn't look too abnormal, with the exception of the right side," Lawson said.

Lawson had passed up shooting at a smaller buck when this one appeared on private land just west of Stewartsville.

"When I first saw him, I wasn't going to shoot him," the 25-year-old Stewartsville native said. "I could only see one side of his rack."

But Lawson fired and dropped him near a fence row from about 200 yards away.

Lawson estimated he weighed about 225 pounds field dressed.

"I had seen him about a week prior while bowhunting in the same area," Lawson said. "When I shot him, he was following after a doe."

So, when and how did the deer obtain the injury which should have been fatal?

Kyle Carroll, Missouri Department of Conservation Agent for DeKalb County speculated that it was probably vehicle related.

"If it had been injured previously, the antler would most likely have been deformed on that side," Carroll said. "I think the injury happened after the antler achieved full growth, probably in late August or early September, even."

"Bucks can sort of shift bone growth to their antlers during this time of the year, almost to the detriment of other bones in their body."