Antlered doe...

[WNY Bowhunter]

Things are kind of slow around here so I thought that I'd post the story of a very unique deer that I found dead in the creek next to my home on 12/27/09...

I first discovered the deer which came to be known as "The Freak" out in a small alfalfa field one night a week prior to the bow season opener in 2007. Initially, I thought it was odd that a buck would still have velvet that late into the fall. After gun season closed in mid-December I spotted this deer out in my aunt's field once again...still in full velvet. This really got me wondering what the heck was going on here?

Fast forward to 2008. I saw/videoed this deer several times throughout the summer and fall. With every Freak sighting I was becoming more and more convinced that "it" was in fact an antlered doe. No one in my family wanted to believe me. Gun season came and went and I wondered if this oddball had been killed by the orange army. Then, right before x-mas one night I spotted her out in the same alfalfa yet again. She had made it through another choatic NY gun season! Her antlers were fully velvet clad with tines that appeared to still be growing and were curling over at the tips.

In '09 I only manged to lay an eye on The Freak one time back in July and then she went MIA until one fateful afternoon a couple of days after x-mas.  I was taking laundry off of the line right before dark when I happened to glance down into the creek below me and noticed a dead deer hung up on a big rock. Apparently, it had been laying frozen in the creek upstream and came floating down. It hadn't been there when I hung the clothes up a few hours earlier. I spotted antlers on its head so I went down to check it out. Right away I noticed velvet on the rack and quickly pulled its head out of the water. It was the Freak!!! She was laying dead 30 yds from my bedroom window! Upon pulling the frozen carcass out of the creek I saw that her left hind leg and been nearly shot off and was only hanging on by skin/tissue. The bullet also grazed the hock on the right leg. Her knees were worn down to the skin as she had apparently been crawling around on them for some time before finally making it into the creek and drowning. I'd guess that she had been dead for a couple of weeks but had been perfectly preserved in the icy water.  It wasn't a good way for this deer to go, but at least I finally got some closure to the mystery of its sex...a once in a lifetime discovery for sure...

[fasteddie]

Freak is right . She had a weird looking rack .

[First-light]

That rack is so interesting, the story is amazing also. It's funny how she ended up so close to you in the end and in an "freaky" way.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

since they lack th hormones to causevelvet shedding and hardening....do they keep growing...24/7/365?

Awesome story WNY...

[WNY Bowhunter]

I was extremely fortunate that she ended up dying in the creek where she turned into a solid block of ice.  If she would have ended up in the woods the scavengers would have picked her clean and I never would have known it's true sex.

[WNY Bowhunter]

since they lack th hormones to causevelvet shedding and hardening....do they keep growing...24/7/365?

Awesome story WNY...

Actually, she did appear to have shed her antlers from '08.  I forgot to mention in my post that I saw this deer once in late March or early April of '09 and she had new antlers sprouting, they were like big velvet clubs coming up from her head.  There were two mature bucks feeding in the field with her at the time but their new racks were just staring to show.  If you look closely at the rack from '08, it is very similar to the one from '09 but there are a few little differences.  I contacted the local Region 8 DEC sub-office in Bath about this deer a couple of days after finding it but they didn't seem too overly interested in coming to check it out.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

That is why I asked....looked almost the same but with a little more growth and curling. I had heard they didn't shed them....I don't think there is much known about these....you would have had to do a full body mount if you had bagged that one...lol...just to prove your story

[WNY Bowhunter]

I have her skull and a couple of pics of her backside showing the "doe parts" as evidence so people don't think that I'm crazy when they hear about it...

[WhiteTailBuckDeer]

I remember this from the old site. Crazy stuff!!

[First-light]

Years ago I saw a huge buck that was shot opening day. The mass on this deer was tremendous it also was a doe! The rack was very tall and didn't have many beams but was as round as a BB bat at the base.

[G-Man]

Did you open it up my understanding is that there are "guy parts"  ususally underdeveloped inside thus causing the antlers? just courious...

[letinmfly]

Years ago I saw a huge buck that was shot opening day. The mass on this deer was tremendous it also was a doe! The rack was very tall and didn't have many beams but was as round as a BB bat at the base.

Was that huge "buck" shot in the Hancock area?  There was a huge 7 point doe taken in Hancock that field dressed 210lbs some years back.  The guy that shot it is/was from New Hyde Park.

This year a hunter shot a 14 point doe in Walton.

[Geno C]

thats is so strange, ive read about this before in a mag along time ago... what a site aand luck that you ended up finding her the way you did. otherwise you never would have known!

[arrow nocker]

AWSOME! find of a life time.that is a neat looking rack too,.

[First-light]

Years ago I saw a huge buck that was shot opening day. The mass on this deer was tremendous it also was a doe! The rack was very tall and didn't have many beams but was as round as a BB bat at the base.

Was that huge "buck" shot in the Hancock area?  There was a huge 7 point doe taken in Hancock that field dressed 210lbs some years back.  The guy that shot it is/was from New Hyde Park.

This year a hunter shot a 14 point doe in Walton.

No it was shot in the Watkins Glenn area. I would guess around 1992ish. I don't know if they checked the innards.

[WNY Bowhunter]

Did you open it up my understanding is that there are "guy parts"  ususally underdeveloped inside thus causing the antlers? just courious...

I wanted to check but the carcass was a block of ice and never really thawed out with the frigid temps that we had during the first week of January last year.

[arrow nocker]

What did you do with the carcus and the skull with horns?

[WNY Bowhunter]

I ended up taking the head to a local taxidermist and had a euro mount done.  I would have rather done it myself but the temp. barely made it into double digits that week and I didn't want to screw with it.  The carcass got tossed out in the back field for the yotes and crows to eat...