Horning In On Elk Gathering Antlers Shed In Spring Can Be Profitable, But Annoying To Elk

A century after prospectors prowled the mountains looking for gold, their ancestors walk the same trails searching for big game antlers shed each spring.

And some horn hunters are no more respectful of nature than prospectors who wrecked pristine creeks. In eastern Idaho, regulators have had to step in to protect the herds from unethical horn gatherers.

The market price is variable, but elk antlers can fetch up to $8 per pound. The headgear is ground up for calcium or for Asian markets which market it as an aphrodisiac. Antlers also are fashioned into furniture and craft items.

Until last summer, Jeff and Gail Waite of Salmon were among those who hunted horns for pleasure and profit. They quit when it began to look like an antler rush. He said for a few years they sold about $3,500 worth.

“Too many people are trying to do it without any thought. Last year, it was terrible to the point of harassment,” Jeff Waite said. “It was so ugly, I wish I had never sold an antler in my life.”

In their haste to make a buck, some have turned to new tactics. Some fly over the back country to locate bull groups after they split from the cows. Others spy on established pickers, following them at a polite but not unnoticed distance.

When antler-shedding time comes, usually in mid-March to mid-April, pickers are in such a hurry to get to the antlers first that they rush in to grab them as they fall.

Bothering bulls too early drives them back up into winter range where the snow is deep, and forage is scarce.