The odds are not in your favor when it comes to shooting a doe with antlers while deer hunting, but one Texas kid was lucky enough to back his buck and his doe too, and all in one shot. That’s because the deer he shot was a true-to-life doe, but it had antlers that were still in velvet. Because all deer shot in the state of Texas must be tagged either buck or antlerless, the hunters had to proudly tag his buck… I mean doe!
Source: “Because of the strangeness of the situation and not knowing for sure how to handle the tagging of the deer, TPWD Game Warden Bradley Smith was notified and advised them to use a buck tag due to the presence of horns. Smith says he has only seen an abnormality (doe with antlers) of this sort one other time in his 26 years of being a game warden.
TPWD Biologist Gary Caulkins says finding a deer with an abnormality similar to this is not a real common thing, saying that state-wide, “there might be about one every other year or so”. He does recall one a few years back though that was an 8 point doe also lacking necessary organs for reproduction. He says these anomalies are so few and far between and deer cells can mutate so quickly that it would be futile to test for genetic abnormalities. He goes on to say that with the increase in deer management properties, anomalies like these seem to be on the decrease.
Young Ethan may not understand exactly what all the hype is about his deer right now, but he is going to have a unique story to share with anyone willing to listen for many years to come.”