Sitting on the turnip field this morning, eating pistachios and minding my own business, and this young 6 point comes cruising in. He's beelining, about 20 yards from where I'm sitting, and headed to the other side of the field. When he passed I looked to see where he was headed and there was a doe and a yearling on the other side of the field.
He's birdogging the doe, and runs the yearling off. I watch this going on for 10 minutes or so, back and forth across the field in front of me. The doe has had her fill and she's headed out, the little 6 behind her, and the yearling behind him.
When he gets directly across from me at about 20 yards again, he slows down and I notice he has a strange walk, almost bowlegged. Then I see this black mass between his legs. I get the binos up enough to see that whatever it is, it's on his testicles.
I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it looked miserable. I didn't think it was likely he could breed, even if he thought he could. I decided to take him. Close 50 yd shot, and he expired in about 5 steps. This is what I found:
I tagged it, headed back to the house and got the number for the warden. They all had more important things to do than look at a deer that was legally tagged, but I did get a number for a biologist. He told me by the description I was giving it was a wart. I argued no way, I've been around cattle my whole life, and I can identify warts and cysts. I emailed him some pictures and he's supposed to get back to me.
I called the GW back to try and get him to issue me another buck tag, as I would have let this young buck walk if it hadn't been for the deformity. He told me that only my area GW could do that, and he was unavailable. Not wanting to spoil the meat, I checked it online and headed to town where my FIL is a veterinary and have him check it out and give me an opinion.
After disecting he determined it was most likely a birth defect, like it just never grew together in the womb. Also a very small chance that it was an injury when he was younger. Only one testicle was functional, and in his opinion, unlikely it would have created enough testosterone to reproduce. Also unlikely that it would survived a full life due to high chance of infection.
Don't regret the decision to shoot, even if it did end MZ buck hunting, but I wish I could have got a replacement tag. I'm off work all week so I'm still hunting. I have trail cam pics of a doe that's probably old enough to vote that needs laid to rest.
Here's a picture of the rack, or lack there of.
He's birdogging the doe, and runs the yearling off. I watch this going on for 10 minutes or so, back and forth across the field in front of me. The doe has had her fill and she's headed out, the little 6 behind her, and the yearling behind him.
When he gets directly across from me at about 20 yards again, he slows down and I notice he has a strange walk, almost bowlegged. Then I see this black mass between his legs. I get the binos up enough to see that whatever it is, it's on his testicles.
I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it looked miserable. I didn't think it was likely he could breed, even if he thought he could. I decided to take him. Close 50 yd shot, and he expired in about 5 steps. This is what I found:
I tagged it, headed back to the house and got the number for the warden. They all had more important things to do than look at a deer that was legally tagged, but I did get a number for a biologist. He told me by the description I was giving it was a wart. I argued no way, I've been around cattle my whole life, and I can identify warts and cysts. I emailed him some pictures and he's supposed to get back to me.
I called the GW back to try and get him to issue me another buck tag, as I would have let this young buck walk if it hadn't been for the deformity. He told me that only my area GW could do that, and he was unavailable. Not wanting to spoil the meat, I checked it online and headed to town where my FIL is a veterinary and have him check it out and give me an opinion.
After disecting he determined it was most likely a birth defect, like it just never grew together in the womb. Also a very small chance that it was an injury when he was younger. Only one testicle was functional, and in his opinion, unlikely it would have created enough testosterone to reproduce. Also unlikely that it would survived a full life due to high chance of infection.
Don't regret the decision to shoot, even if it did end MZ buck hunting, but I wish I could have got a replacement tag. I'm off work all week so I'm still hunting. I have trail cam pics of a doe that's probably old enough to vote that needs laid to rest.
Here's a picture of the rack, or lack there of.
Glad to see that bone was not the only thing on your mind while hunting. You did a good thing by taking that deer, i think i would have done the same
