Tell me what you think of this pic on a hunting forum.

flyin-lowe · Nov 16, 2013

My gut and first instinct was this is a fake. Many others did as well but then the guy drummed up a newspaper article so people are now believing him. I told them that I could photoshop a picture and send it to my local newspaper and they would likely believe me too. I am guessing the deer could be real but it sure looks to me like the photo has been messed with. The guys hand on the antlers looks huge as do the deer and the bow compared to his body. Like the deer was enlarged to look bigger. Plus some of the points on his rack look like they have been added on. Not to mention the obvious blurring of the "drop tine" that some people are claiming is due to the camera angle.
What do you guys think?

What am I seeing? - HuntingNet.com Forums

The_Traveler · Nov 16, 2013

"from Ed Waite
wrote 5 days 19 hours ago
This big buck currently making the rounds with the huge drop tine (14 7/8 inches) was scored by me on 10 Oct. It was taken with a compound bow on 30 Sept 2013. It was a free roaming deer and was taken by Mark Owen in Wayne Co. Ohio. I am the person who scored the buck on 10 October for Buckmasters Trophy Records. It has an Official Score of 239 7/8, an inside spread of 16 1/8 inches and a gross or composite score of 256 0/8ths inches. We do not do "Green Scores" so that score is official and will stand as is.
Edson Waite
Regional Director
Buckmasters Trophy Records"

Derrel · Nov 16, 2013

It looks like a huge whitetail buck--look at the hindquarters and belly area--that is one FAT buck!!! See the cornfield behind??? It's probably a 10 year-old, agricultural-area buck. It appears to have two very long drop tines on its rack. When deer get very old, their antlers, which grow new each year, often begin to move from what is called "typical" conformation and into "non-typical", with flat out WEIRD forking and branching, weird drop tines, odd eye guard tines, and so on. SOmebody on the forum counted and counted 21 points...and to me, and I've seen quite a few photos of non-typical whitetails, this looks genuine. If you've not seen how odd non-typical, very old bucks become, then you'd likely think it was faked, but that's mostly due to lack of understanding about how freakishly weird the antlers can become by the 10th or 11th year of life; damned few bucks live to that age.

flyin-lowe · Nov 16, 2013

Could be, the "points" right above the deers eyes look unnatural to me. But then again when you are not used to seeing a deer like that the entire thing looks unnatural.

Derrel · Nov 17, 2013

Yes, the buck has dual eye-guards on each side...one side they're small, on the other side they are very thick...again...dual eye-guard tines on non-typical, with poor bilateral symmetry [thick on one side, thinner and more-typical on the other side]...again--pretty common on old, non-typical bucks that have reached this freakish level. What you're seeing is the way non-typical racks very often are! And like you said, when you're not used to seeing bucks like this, the effect looks, well, unnatural and, well, weird.

Here, take a look at a bunch of non-typical racks...

what causes non-typical deer antlers? - Google Search

flyin-lowe · Nov 17, 2013

I do a lot of hunting and understand and have seen no typical v typical bucs etc. I was posting this because the photo itself looked very unnatural to me. I have seen bucks (on TV, not in person) with crazier racks then that. I was just more curious if people here, who know photo editing could spot any part of this photo that has been photoshoped?

hopdaddy · Nov 17, 2013

If you zoom in on the base of the "Unnatural" Tine .You will see very poor Photoshop work . BTW ,I help with Turkey hunting contest each year on "Grans slam net " you would be surprised how far people will go trying to get recognition ,let alone win a shotgun . Again Look at the Base of the "Unnatural" tine ,where it comes out of the shoulder ,it needed some healing brush !

DarkShadow · Nov 17, 2013

looks photo Chopped to me. :wink:

robbins.photo · Nov 17, 2013

Derrel said:
It looks like a huge whitetail buck--look at the hindquarters and belly area--that is one FAT buck!!! See the cornfield behind??? It's probably a 10 year-old, agricultural-area buck. It appears to have two very long drop tines on its rack. When deer get very old, their antlers, which grow new each year, often begin to move from what is called "typical" conformation and into "non-typical", with flat out WEIRD forking and branching, weird drop tines, odd eye guard tines, and so on. SOmebody on the forum counted and counted 21 points...and to me, and I've seen quite a few photos of non-typical whitetails, this looks genuine. If you've not seen how odd non-typical, very old bucks become, then you'd likely think it was faked, but that's mostly due to lack of understanding about how freakishly weird the antlers can become by the 10th or 11th year of life; damned few bucks live to that age.

I think that the fact that this buck did live this long is just proof positive we need more rednecks.

robbins.photo · Nov 17, 2013

Derrel said:
Yes, the buck has dual eye-guards on each side...one side they're small, on the other side they are very thick...again...dual eye-guard tines on non-typical, with poor bilateral symmetry [thick on one side, thinner and more-typical on the other side]...again--pretty common on old, non-typical bucks that have reached this freakish level. What you're seeing is the way non-typical racks very often are! And like you said, when you're not used to seeing bucks like this, the effect looks, well, unnatural and, well, weird.

Here, take a look at a bunch of non-typical racks...

what causes non-typical deer antlers? - Google Search

I got really excited there for a minute, then clicked on the link and it was a bunch of pictures of deer. Sheesh.

hopdaddy · Nov 17, 2013

robbins.photo said:
I think that the fact that this buck did live this long is just proof positive we need more rednecks.

HEY ! I represent that statement ! Where I live ,Being called a Redneck is a complement . However ,I have lived in many places.

Derrel · Nov 17, 2013

Ummmm, you guys with the Photoshopped comments...HUGE, weird drop tines like the one on the buck's left and right sides are not that uncommon. But this buck had a weirdly-shaped drop tine on his left side!

Big Buck Alert: Huge Ohio Nontypical Rumored to Score 256 Inches | Outdoor Life

Take a look at the bowhunter's buck at the bottom of the article: see the massive drop tines on both sides??? Yes, they go down to the animal's torso when it's on the ground,and dead...and as Lew quoted above, the animal has already been seen, measured, and scored by an official Buckmasters scorer... The tine that people think is 'shopped is being referred to as a "drop-club" because the bottom end of the tine is club-like...bulbous on the bottom...

Here's a better view of the massive drop-tines...the one on the buck's left rack side seems deformed at the bottom; as you can see by looking at other Ohio non-typical racks, weird, deformed antler tines are "the norm" in many cases. That region of the country has produced some of the highest-scoring non-typical whitetails in the USA.

ohio-monster-drop-300x258.jpg

which is from this big deer blog post: http://bigdeerblog.com/?p=962

"it's real".

runnah · Nov 17, 2013

It's photoshopped, no way can you actually hit a deer with a bow. I've tried!

hopdaddy · Nov 17, 2013

Derrel said:
Ummmm, you guys with the Photoshopped comments...HUGE, weird drop tines like the one on the buck's left and right sides are not that uncommon. But this buck had a weirdly-shaped drop tine on his left side!

Big Buck Alert: Huge Ohio Nontypical Rumored to Score 256 Inches | Outdoor Life

Take a look at the bowhunter's buck at the bottom of the article: see the massive drop tines on both sides??? Yes, they go down to the animal's torso when it's on the ground,and dead...and as Lew quoted above, the animal has already been seen, measured, and scored by an official Buckmasters scorer... The tine that people think is 'shopped is being referred to as a "drop-club" because the bottom end of the tine is club-like...bulbous on the bottom...

Here's a better view of the massive drop-tines...the one on the buck's left rack side seems deformed at the bottom; as you can see by looking at other Ohio non-typical racks, weird, deformed antler tines are "the norm" in many cases. That region of the country has produced some of the highest-scoring non-typical whitetails in the USA.

ohio-monster-drop-300x258.jpg

which is from this big deer blog post: Ohio: Giant Drop-Club Buck! | Big Deer

"it's real".

I haven't visited the links you've posted yet (I will) But the link/photo in the op for what ever reason ,has editing work at the shoulder ,at the end of the dropped tine , where it meets the shoulder area . I don't know if Ohio too ,has Deer farms ,but as the farms continue to control the gene pool ,this type of Supper Deer will become more prevalent.