Post
by SAMCRO » June 16th, 2014, 10:40 am
Now we're getting somewhere. Tony, I'm glad you replied. I was waiting for one of the few death bringers to show up. You asked how I would know they actually did anything, and that's a fair question. There are plenty of places that do this kind of work, but there's only one lab that will do this for the public. I could be wrong about that, as maybe another lab or two now does this. Last year, however, they were the only ones.
You can't know anything for certain, but I do know this is a certified lab, not some idiot in a garage, and this is how they make their living, and pay their bills. If they aren't doing what they say they are, I would imagine word would get out, and they would no longer be in business. I think in fairness to them, we have to assume they actually produce the product they claim to produce. All you get in return is a certificate of authenticity, which could easily be faked, but bears the name of the lab, as well as the person who performed the work on your animal.
My taxidermist has been using them for a while now, and they cater to taxidermists by offering them packages. You can send this in as an individual, but it's a bit more expensive. You also have to contact them, and they send you collection instructions, as well as a "kit", which consists of nothing more than the instructions, and some kind of container for the teeth, that kind of thing. The taxidermist buys a package if he wants, and they send him a set of these kits, based on how many he believes he will be sending. They also arrange for a lessened fee. I have no idea what the taxidermist himself is charged, but as a customer it's $20.
That's not much money, and my thought, besides that I was curious about this individual animal, was learning the age of the buck wouldn't be a bad thing. When I started a thread about this buck earlier this year, I said he was 3.5 years old.
This was based on my observations of him over the previous years, as well as what I've learned about the backyard deer herd. Most assumed he was at least 4.5, as you see from the previous responses to this post.
I also posted a picture of him some time ago, and said he was 18 months old. The responses here, and from others, were that he had to have been at least 2.5 years old at the time. If someone was "guessing" his age this year, as you alluded to (legitimate question), and they used a picture of him (which they didn't have), I'm fairly sure they would have said 4.5-5.5.
The results came back, and they aged him at 3.5 years old. This is what I thought, and this is why I hesitated to kill him. He was a very nice 18-month old buck, with a rack much better than average. He was a testament as to why antler restrictions are a bad idea. Most would have killed him then, and many, sadly, would have thought they had taken a nice buck. He was merely a gifted 18-month old.
At 2.5, the year before I killed him, I'm estimating he scored roughly 135 inches. I imagine that would be a very nice buck for most anyone, and yet he was 2.5. Another reason antler restriction laws are misguided.
This season, he actually lost time length. However, he gained a tine, adding a matching G4 on the antler where there was none at 2.5. He also gained some mass, and some width, although not an abundance of either. I have no real expectation that had I held off and waited another year to kill him that he would have produced much more antler. No matter what we think, and no matter how nice the first set or two of antlers appear, these are not solid indicators of a mature bucks antler potential.
I have not scored him well yet, but by rough scoring he was in the neighborhood of 140 inches at the time of death - just a stones throw off the score at 2.5. So, I learned a little, had my assumptions confirmed, and am out $20 for the trouble. Good trade-off for me.
All you thugs and ugly mugs dealing drugs and making noise,
You can kill each other all you want but if you touch my little boys,
You begging for this bullet will be the last thing that you say
before I let my dark side come out to play
