I didn't clarify the stink I was referring to. I wasn't referring to the smell of purification (rotting flesh) but rather the repugnant odor of stress that I have smelled before on buck's heavy in the rut. Sometimes the old Finn's would refer to these as a Pi$$ Buck! They stink of urine and perspiration.
Take a car killed deer that has only been down for a couple of hours in cool weather. They stink, you will need to wear gloves to drag one off the road. Sure the are all busted up inside, but the smell is just the same as a Pi$$ buck! My nephew shot a stinker some years back. It made scrapes over 8' in diameter. We were all hunting for this active buck. He shot a Gigilo fork horn and that deer stunk just as bad as a car kill. He didn't like my suggestion of burying it where it lay, and we got to smell that stinking thing for 2 days until he took it home.
I knew exactly what my father-in-law was talking about with the stink of overstressed deer body's.
Here are some links to other locked Antler bucks.
Link 1
This story refers to the same way the owner of the display in my thread was done.
Link 2
About 3/4 of the way down the blog page is a story about how ethical it is to shoot locked antler deer. I will leave that to the shooter/hunter and what is legal.
Link 3
This is a story about the rescue of the living deer. I would not elect to do it this way
I didn't find the story I was looking for that was in the local paper several years back about a large buck see running with another head locked in his rack. Apparently the buck was able to paw the head off the other and seemed to be doing ok with his prize. I believe it was in Wisconsin.