Current SCI all time record (typical antlers): Score 150 1/8
Current SCI all time record (typical antlers)(preserve): Score 145 3/8 - Florida, Lake Okeechobee - 5/98

Description: The Sambar is the largest deer in India, with the grandest horns. It stands at about 5ft at the shoulders. It is a heavy animal, weighing about 320kgs or more. The average tip to tip length of its antlers is about 85cm. The record stands from Bhopal, measuring 110cm tip to tip. The brow tine is robust and stout, and set at an acute angle to the main beam. The main beam splits into almost equal tines at its summit. By the fourth year, the stags develop their full number of points. The Malayan Sambar is a thick set and more rugged individual but the average length of its antlers is only 65 cm.

The Sambar is a uniformly brown animal, with a grayish or yellowish tinge. The underparts are pale. The coat is coarse and during the summer months much of its hair is shed. Old stags tend to become very dark, almost black. The females are lighter. The Sambar has a mane of long coarse hair just behind the ears and also the much controversial "sore patch" near its chest, which looks like a raw, red patch of flesh.

Other Common Names:

Size:

Range: (Indigenous to, but not huntable in, southeast Asia): Very lightly hunted in Texas until populations increase; months of antler growth varies.

Natural History: Unlike the Chital, the Sambar is an animal of the deep woods. Sambars frequent forests that adjoin cultivation. They feed on grass, leaves and wild fruit. Since they are night feeders, they do not come out of the deep jungle till dark. Their powers of sight are moderate, but their sense of scent and hearing are acute. Sambars take to water readily. They swim with their body submerged, with only their head and antlers above the water.

The antlers of the Sambar are deciduous. In central and southern India, the antlers are shed between the end of March and mid-April and begin to grow again in May. The antlers are velvet during the rains, but the velvet clears by November. In certain areas, the trees where a deer has rubbed off its velvet can be clearly seen. Sambar males are territorial and often fight to obtain sole right over a valley. In such a valley, a dominant male has the right to the does that enter the valley. Stags tend to lead a very lonely life however. Sambar are rarely seen in big herds, and usually only a few associate together.

Hunting Characteristics: