All-time antler records available on DNR website

The complete listing of South Carolina’s antler records is now available to the public on-line at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources’ website, http://dnr.sc.gov/wildlife/deer/alltime.html. The South Carolina white-tailed deer Antler Records Program was initiated in the spring of 1974, and since that time, 6,783 sets of antlers (6,517 typical and 266 non-typical) have been officially entered into the list, according to Charles Ruth, Deer and Wild Turkey Program coordinator for the S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Initially, scoring sessions were only conducted a few times each spring, but since 1987, antler scoring sessions have been scheduled throughout the state with about 12 sessions occurring annually. Each year DNR wildlife biologists and wildlife technicians score about 500 sets of antlers. Generally, only about 25 percent of the antlers that are scored make the Antler Records List with the bulk of entrants falling short of the minimum scores, said Ruth. The first “Records of South Carolina White-tailed Deer” was published in 1998. Since that time 13 updates have been published on an annual or semi-annual basis.