Out of nine deer species in India, five species are in Schedule-I [Kashmir stag (Cervus elaphus), Thamin (Cervus eldi), Swamp deer (Cervus duvauceli), Mouse deer (Tragulus meminna), Musk deer (Moschus moschifereus)] and other four [Chital (Axis axis), Sambar (Cervus unicolor), Hog deer (Axis porcinus) and Barking deer (Muntiacus muntjak)] in Schedule-III of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Antlers are in trade for showpieces, pistol butt, knife handle, medicines and button. One of the objectives of ongoing research project titled “Characterization of species from bone, tusk, rhino horn and antler to deal offence cases” is to characterize antlers based on various techniques as items are of varied nature. Therefore, we characterized antlers of five common deer species (Chital, Sambar, Swamp deer, Hog deer and Barking deer) using morphometric and analytical techniques. Measurements were used to distinguish antlers of Chital (n=46), Sambar (n=22), Swamp deer (n=12), Hog deer (n=18) and Barking deer (n=4). We used cross-section and surface morphology based on Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) in differentiating antlers for Chital (n=9), Sambar (n=4), Swamp deer (n=4), Hog deer (n=2) and Barking deer (n=1). We also characterized antlers based on X-ray Diffraction (XRD),  Thermo gravimetric technique (TGA), X-ray fluorescence (X RF), Inductively Coupled Plasma – Atomic Emission Spectrometry (ICP-AES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma – Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) for antlers of  Chital, Sambar, Hog deer, Swamp deer and Barking deer (n=1-8) for establishing species-specific signatures for dealing samples of a very small quantity or in powder form.