[May 19, 2013] Grand Forks Herald Brad Dokken column Tweet May 19, 2013 (Grand Forks Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Sometimes stories take fun but unexpected turns. I joined Mitch Haaby of Roseau, Minn., earlier this month for a story about collecting antler sheds. My goal wasn't to write a "how-to" or "where-to" story about hunting for fallen antlers -- enough people are scouring the woods already -- but instead to tell a story about Haaby's passion for deer hunting and how collecting antler sheds helps prepare him for hunting season. Haaby is a student of deer and deer hunting. The depth of Haaby's knowledge became apparent when he met me at my family's cabin before we hit the woods. What he saw made his jaw drop. ... The stage for this unexpected turn of events was set in October 2004, when a couple of friends visiting from the Twin Cities returned to the cabin one afternoon with an antler from what must have been a very impressive whitetail buck. They're not deer hunters, and they weren't looking for antlers; they simply stumbled across the shed while grouse hunting on state land. Judging by the antler's pristine shape and chocolate-brown color, it had been dropped the previous winter. The pair who found the shed had no interest in keeping it, so they left the antler at the cabin. It sat in a box by the door for several years, until my brother mounted the antler on a board and fastened it to the wall for a coat and hat rack. That's what caught Haaby's attention. "Where did you find that antler " he asked, removing the hats and a vest that hung from the tines for a closer look. I told him, and the twist in the story was complete. Same area Haaby's family has a cabin not far from where my friends came across the antler in 2004. In March 2012, his dad, Terry, found a weathered antler in a nearby patch of cedars. Judging by the bits of fungus on the antlers and a couple of tines partially chewed away by rodents, the shed had been in the woods for several years. Haaby showed me a picture of the weathered antler on his iPhone. Without a doubt, it was the match of the antler my friends stumbled across in 2004. His dad had found it within about 200 yards of the other antler. What are the odds I'm a sucker for a good story, so when Haaby asked if I'd be interesting in swapping antlers so he could give the pristine half to his dad and complete the set, my arm didn't need to be twisted. One coat rack's the same as the next as far as I'm concerned. I didn't share the story in the article about antler sheds because that would have ruined the surprise. We couldn't make the swap until the following week, so Haaby had to wait several agonizing days before he could show the other half of the rack to his dad. That finally happened early this past week. "He was ecstatic," Haaby said. 'Stunning surprise' I talked to Terry Haaby about the antlers Wednesday afternoon. He said he'd always wondered what the weathered antler would have looked like in its prime. Now he knows. "When Mitchell came in the house, and he showed me the other antler, I said, 'Good grief, look at that -- it's in good shape,'" he said. "They were from the same year, but we found them nine years apart. "It was a really stunning surprise." The weathered antler is severely chewed on two of the tines, but the length of the brow tine is intact. "It took me about five seconds and I recognized the shed that it had to be," he said. "I said, 'It's the match, and it was dropped the same year because it was a dead-on match. "These racks, from one year to the next, for the most part, they're recognizable, but they can vary slightly from year to year. The shape and formation is intact for several years of the deer's life. You can recognize the deer by seeing it many times on cameras and stuff, and you get to know them." By Boone and Crockett measuring standards, the elder Haaby estimates the rack in its prime would have scored about 170 inches in the nontypical category for asymmetrical antlers. By comparison, the rack, with 14 countable points, wouldn't have scored more than about 135 inches in the typical category because of its asymmetrical points. The story behind the reunited rack, though, is a trophy -- for the father who found the weathered antler in March 2012 and the son who stumbled across its pristine half more than a year later in a very unexpected location. "It was just awesome," Terry said. "I was pretty much grinning from ear to ear when I saw that thing. I was really, really happy to see it the way it really was." But his son, he said, deserved to keep the matching set. "I just felt they should be together," he said. "And being Mitchell got lucky enough to find you and that other antler, he should have them." --- Dokken reports on outdoors. Reach him at (701) 780-1148; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1148; or send email to [email protected]. ___ (c)2013 the Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.) Visit the Grand Forks Herald (Grand Forks, N.D.) at www.grandforksherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]