What causes nontypical antelope horns?

[Adam Gibbs]

I shot an antelope this year where both his horn curls tipped forward instead of up and in. A friend and I were talking about it and he asked what caused it. I tried looking it up but didn't see much on it. Does anyone know what causes it? If a goat is like that one year, will he grow his horns the same way every year? Or can he grow normal the next? Here is the mount.

 

[Wapiti1]

Sometimes it is damage while growing or from fighting. That one, I would say is genetic. Or he got too close to the fire trying to warm up and his horns melted.

Jeremy

 

[Jimss]

My guess is genetics. Also a buck is plagued with the same horn confirmation the rest of his life. The outer sheath/horn is shed every year and a new horn is grown over the same bone pedical base. I've seen quite a few "nontypical" bucks over the years in both Colo and Wyoming. I'm sure some of them possibly have an accident that causes the horns to grow weird after injury but am guessing most of them were born that way.