The Million-Dollar Antler Trade: Inside South Dakota’s 60-Ton-a-Year Business

What started as a simple Craigslist side gig has exploded into a massive operation moving 60 tons of elk, deer, and moose antlers annually. Derek Klawitter and Tony Nogy, owners of Dakota Antlers in Sioux Falls, are now South Dakota’s largest antler dealers. Their warehouse recently received 4,500 pounds of moose antlers shipped from the lower Yukon in Alaska—a routine delivery in a business where prized specimens can sell for thousands of dollars each.

Klawitter grew up hunting and saving antlers. When his personal collection grew, he listed some on Craigslist and discovered an unexpected demand. That first ad connected him with Nogy, a self-described “hardcore shed hunter” whose garage was “plumb full of antlers.” After a couple of years, Klawitter got too busy to handle the work alone. He asked Nogy to join him, and the partnership was sealed.

Their most exotic supply line came through eBay, where Klawitter found Native Alaskans in the Yukon who travel miles by snowmobile to collect moose sheds. Stacking the antlers on pallets is “an art,” says Klawitter, “like Tetris.” The hauls journey across the Pacific to the Lower 48, then by FedEx to South Dakota. Some of those Alaska moose antlers have set size records.

Back at the “antler barn,” every piece is sorted into three grades. A-grade antlers are brown and unweathered. B-grade have light cracking or ground stains. C-grade are considered “junk” but still fetch $2 a pound. After washing and tumbling, the antlers become everything from dog chews to high-end décor. Nogy builds moose antler Christmas trees that sell for $5,000 to $15,000 at Al’s Oasis, a tourist stop along Interstate 90.

The partners pay cash and regularly drive 500-mile loops through western South Dakota, eastern Wyoming, and the Midwest, buying from ranchers, hunters, and farmers. “We literally buy everything,” Klawitter says. Elk antlers are scarce in South Dakota, so they trade deer antlers with Western dealers. A single elk antler can bring $100 to $400.

Their biggest customer is the Scheels megastore, but they also cater to collectors who treat antlers like baseball cards. Nogy cautions that no one gets rich overnight. “For us, it is a process.” Still, with 120,000 pounds moving each year, Dakota Antlers has proven that shed hunting is not just a hobby—it’s a booming industry built on one simple truth: no two antlers are ever the same.