Broken antlers and points are common but has anyone ever found one while hunting?
About 35 yrs ago I was still hunting along a deer trail with my Black Bear recurve about a mile from where I'm typing this in eastern MA. The trail headed for a low point in an old stone wall where a large flat rock allowed for an easy crossing. Lying in the middle of the rock was this point. There was no sign of a confrontation in the area and I remember thinking if I could only find the other seven...or five...or three..........
(http://i.imgur.com/Y2XrTzY.jpg)
I have found one. It was embedded in the hip of a buck I killed. When butchering the deer, I noticed a healed over wound channel and followed it to a broken off antler tip. Ouch!
I found this one on a trail paralleling a pine thicket edge. Can't remember if it was disturbed as in a struggle.
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4594/27686111689_d878c4c818.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/Jbwyrg) IMG_4134 (https://flic.kr/p/Jbwyrg)
I found a time once while helping track a deer. At first I thought it was just a spike shed until I realized it had no base and was clearly broken off.
Good friend Randy Reeves from TX found a broken piece of antler one year. If I remember right it was a droptine. A week or so later he shot a huge non-typical and the previous broken piece fit together perfectly. Think of the odds of that. bw
Never found a broken deer tine, but 10-12 years ago I found a smallish moose paddle that was broken off about 8" from the base. It wasn't a clean break either, the "fibers" of the antler were bent up and snapped off as if the force that broke it was from the bottom of the antler pushing up. Crazy to think about the force involved in that battle!
I've not found just points, but I know there a few laying around my woods this winter. (http://i.imgur.com/XmX2Vs2.jpg) (http://i.imgur.com/U4HLPxn.jpg)
I have a buddy that shot a buck last year that scored over 200" non typical on the first day of season, that had a freshly broken tine. He had pictures of the buck the day before with the tine intact. He went back the next day where he shot it and found the broken tine under a big rubbed tree not far from the kill spot.
I killed a decent WV 8 point once that had a tine tip about 1" long stuck in his forehead.