Because most measuring systems do not differentiate between bucks and does, keeping only records of the racks they wear, declaring a state- or world-record antlered doe often comes down to what scorers and administrators can remember.
To make things easier, at least for the sake of quick reference, Buckmasters' scoresheet now has a BUCK-or-DOE box. At some point, when we have enough entries, I'd hoped to include an antlered doe category in our record book.
While the occurrence of does with antlers seems to be on the rise, this doesn't mean such a category will swell with these anomalies if and when an official registry takes shape. After all, few antlered does wear enough antler to even qualify for the book.
The plan to recognize the ones who do, however, suffered a bit of a setback this year, thanks to a Kentucky whitetail arrowed by Conrad Reding. Anatomically, his deer is both a buck AND a doe.
I'm thinking out loud here: If there were a separate category for antlered does, should this 17-pointer be declared as such?
Conrad's specimen had both male and female plumbing. He didn't know this when he checked-in the deer in the field. He'd recovered it after nightfall. The great revelation came when the animal was under the lights at his taxidermist's shop.
Since he checked the deer as a buck, it'll be recognized as such. Still, it had a vagina.
What if its male genitalia weren't visible, though? In that case, most people would refer to it as a doe, even if the deer had undescended testicles. Hey, it happens; it's why some otherwise anatomical females have the testosterone responsible for antler growth.
We'll figure it out, or maybe we won't. Meanwhile, any red-blooded deer hunter would be thrilled to get a chance at the specimen Conrad took on opening day of Kentucky's 2021 bow season.
Here's how it went ...
Conrad gained permission to hunt the Logan County tract through a friend's brother-in-law. Three weeks after he'd created mineral sites and set up two trail cameras, he checked to see what had passed through the timbered ravine.
Among the photos was a buck with huge potential.
In order to learn more about the property, the bowhunter from Russellville, Kentucky, studied aerial maps. He deduced the deer was bedding in a nearby CRP field, and the strip of woods was a whitetail corridor, flanked on both sides by cornfields.
Patterning the big buck was easy. It walked past the cameras twice a day, going toward food in the evening and returning to its bedding area around 6 a.m.
As eager as Conrad was to hunt the animal, he opted not to go to his stand on opening morning. He was afraid there was no way he could reach it without spooking his Most Wanted.
"It's a good thing I didn't go out that morning," he told Hunter Schmittou, who's writing the story for Rack magazine. "
Just as I suspected, the buck was under my stand at 6:15, headed back to its bedding area."
Conrad was sitting in his stand by 3 p.m., however.
Deer began filtering through the area about 6:00. Bringing up the rear was the bull of the woods, which came to within 16 yards of the salivating hunter.
The rack scores 191 1/8 inches as an Irregular under Buckmasters' system.
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