No, no chopper Johnny!! I don't get involved in such things with deer.

My 'guess' is that he carried that head for a very long time. His outers and brows are heavily ground back. Man I would loved to have seen him in fresh antler.... but hey...

When we found him he was agressively rubbing that sapling you can see in the background. In all honesty when I first saw him, partly, in the dawn light with that heavy rack and rubbing that tree, on the edge of a clearing so close to open paddocks .... my instant thought was that I had bumped into a red stag. Just for a second... (wink).