Goofy looking antlers

[HookJaw_Brimhall]

I recently took a trip down to the small town of Holden to see some relatives. We took a trip down there mostly to take care of some jacks and check out the Turkey situation. I got a little more excited when my uncle told me that the DWR gives him two land owner tags for his property every year (Fillmore Oak Creek unit). I'm not very close to this uncle of mine and this is the first time I have been down to his property. He owns about 2500 acres of prime deer country and takes a decent buck every year with his land owner tag. Unfortunately, he takes his son every year as tradition so I wont be getting one any time soon.
Anyway, He was showing me some of his bucks from the years and He showed me this old buck he shot a number of years ago that has one of the oddest antler configurations I have ever seen. About half way up the beams, the antlers have a fat, ring like thing. Check out the pics below. Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I know there are tons of strange configurations out there but i have never seen one that is consistent on all the beams like this. It's almost like his growth was stunted for a couple of days and then he started growing again.
Anywho, the trip was good and I ended up rolling a couple squealing jacks down the hills too.
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[Theekillerbee]

I'm no wildlife biologist, but it has the looks of a fracture pattern. I would guess he smashed into something, and crushed the antlers not long before they stopped growing, they healed themselves, but ran out of time before the blood supply was cut off to totally remodel. Human bones do the same thing when they fracture. It's called bone callus.
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[BEARCLAW]

Very interesting. I would have to agree with TKB, looks like a fracture during growth. Nice rack!
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[Saberfish]

[black][size 3]That is a unique set of antlers. My guess is that in the early formation of them, the deer experienced some type of major trauma, either injury or short term illness. The malformation appears to have effected the antlers at the same period of time on both sides, but after the trauma, they grew normally.[/size][/black]
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[size 3]The antlers are strange/rare enough, that I'm not sure that even someone with professional knowledge in this area would have an answer.[/size]
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[size 3]However, it would be interesting to get a professional opinion.[/size]
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[lunkerhunter2]

I have seen deer with these "buttons" numerous times, but never more than 1 point at a time. Really wierd.
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