Author Topic: non-typical deer (Read 736 times)

pa ridge-runner · « **on:** August 30, 2003, 03:33:27 AM »

:-) Hi Fella's
Just thought I'd open a subject on non-typical deer.It is my opinion that most non-typical deer are that way because of an injury experienced sometime before the antler growth period.
I have a friend of mine that shot a deer during our Pa buck season that was a very big but very non-typical rack.This deer had been shot the season before(or maybe earlier),and had a front leg injury.It draged its front hoof for so long, that its one hoof was almost completely worn off.
Has anyone else ever taken a non-typical with some sort of injury?
I have heard,and it sounds right,that non-typicals are that way because of some sort of injury,and that creates a defect in the antler growth.

Thanks,Stu
pa ridge-runner

John Y Cannuck · « **Reply #1 on:** September 01, 2003, 03:15:22 AM »

I think you're at least partly right. The guys shot a non typ a few years back. When we were dressing it out, we found an old wound in the rump turned out to be buckshot. As we worked at it, we found four more.
I suppose a desease, or maybe a birth defect might have a similar effect?
Opinions?

Varmint Hunter · « **Reply #2 on:** September 01, 2003, 04:56:02 AM »

An unusual or non-typical rack can be caused by injuries to the head, or antlers during the early stages of rack development. Injuries to the testicles are also known to have caused unusual rack formations.

Outside of that, I do not believe that bodily injuries cause a buck to become non-typical. Non-typical bucks are usually fathered by non-typical parentage and will probably (noty definately) produce non-typical offspring.

As a bowhunter who hunts in a bowhunting only area (densely populated), I have taken many typical bucks that have survived some rather nasty injuries from poorly placed broadheads during earlier seasons or been hit by cars. I have also taken bucks that some fool had shot with bird shot, leaving the deer to live with 50-100 lead pellets in its body. None of these bucks became non-typical due to these injuries.

The production of non-typical racks is more dependant on heredity than any other factor. This is a good thing because we can always expect to see some interesting non-typicals in generations to come.

Just my 2 cents
VH

longwinters · « **Reply #3 on:** September 01, 2003, 07:21:33 AM »

Most bucks that I have seen that had weird horns due to an injury were not what I would call non-typical, but rather deformed. Usually on the opposite side of where the injury was. I think a true "non-typical" buck gets that way from genetics and often age.

long