Will buffalo horns shrink any in width after a year and by how much?

Did your horns arrive short, or are you anticipating their arrival?

Brian

Donato

I've never heard of any horn shrinkage, in width. If the bosses are soft when you shoot it you will lost all of the area that is soft, not a problem to rebuild it. I took a 38 1/2 inch buff and I got a 38 1/2 inch buff back. I've done a bunch of buffalo for clients, no width shrinkage

I have 4 sets of horns. In all of them the boss when they were originally shot seemed to be very clsose together. As european mounts, the boss seems wider apart. What causes that to happen? The first buff had a boss that appeared grown so close together that a tooth pic could not fit between the two. The finished product had a spread of more than 3 inches. Either they spread after they were boiled and replaced on the skull or the spread of the living animal will look different than the live animal.

As horns are growing, the base is a softer form of horn, almost like a tough gristle. This is more susceptible to being boiled or cooked off. Also when it dries after being cooked too long, it can get a little brittle. This area of the horn is thin and can chip and break. Ib404, from your description it sounds like some of the softer new horn was boiled off. Could also be that the horn sheaths were never attached to the horn bases in their original places.