Once in a while I stumble upon a real "treasure" left by nature. Like the elk shed that I found in Grant County, or the time that found an entire whitetail buck skull in Sheridan County. I was fishing Billy's lake with my cousin, Gene, and we decided to make a pit stop on shore. I maneuvered the boat through the reeds and up to a bank where I jumped over in waders and pulled the bow close enough for Gene to step ashore. I spotted something white barely sticking out of the water under me. Then I saw something else a foot and a half away. They looked like antler tips, but I was skeptical. I reached down into the muck and extracted a perfectly preserved skull. We were astonished both at our find, and the fact that in a lake with over four miles of shoreline, I managed to beach the boat exactly splitting the protruding tips of the two main beams. 

A few years later I found a muley buck skull a couple hundred yards west of that very spot. It was also partially submerged in the water. These two skulls now sit and watch the traffic go by in our front yard.

Non-hunters probably wonder what the big deal is about antlers. I can't explain it either. There is just something seductive about long tines on a heavy beam. A doe seems to go for those big old heavy racks too. I guess it's just another one of those mysteries of nature.