Drill antlers as you would drill a hard wood. You want to cut and file the antler so you have a squared surface to drill. Then use a good drill bit, because antler is mostly mineral, and its hard. Back the drill out to pull out the chips and powder, and clean the flutes of the bit. Take your time. Drilling antler produces a foul odor, so ventilate the shop well, and wear a face mask. You don't need to breath in that dust.
For a short starter, I simply used a piece of hickory left over after I made anew ramrod for my rifle. The grain is straight, the wood is tough, it takes both stain and finish well, and you can use a large drill bit, turning it slowing to create a cup in the end of the stick that will be pushing your round ball down the barrel. Use a good glue, or epoxy to glue the stick into the antly. Consider drilling a small hole through the side of the antler to pin the stick into place. I don't think its necessary on a short starter, but its good practice for pinning ferrules and handles on ramrods.
I used a second of deer anther that was at the fork of two tines, as my hand for my short starter. I sanded down the cut off tines to make a smooth surface for my palm to strike when starting a tight fitting ball into the muzzle. A short starter will have TWO sticks: a very short stub that simply gets the ball down below the muzzle, so you can use patching strips and cut the patch off at the muzzle rather than using pre-cut patches, and a longer stick- 6-10 inches at the longest, although I have see them as short a 3 inches- to run the ball down the barrel a distance to make it easier to center the end of your ramfod in the barrel and run the ball down onto the powder, or overpowder wads. Use the hand over hand method of running the stick down the barrel, with your hands never being more than 6 inches above the muzzle, and about 2 inches apart. This will keep you using your fine muscles and motor skills, rather than using your large muscles and gross motor skills, and bending and breaking the rod int he process. Using the fine muscles in your fingers and hands tells you the condition of the barrel as you load that next patched round ball down on to the powder. It tells you if you need to clean the barrel better after this next shot than you did before you loaded this ball. And, using those fine muscles will let you load the ball down, compress the charge if its a percussion gun, without distorting that face of the Round Ball.
