Antler Does

[bootshowl]

Saw a spike with four does last year opening morning. The spikes were just straight and twisted like an antelope...ugly for a whitetail. I wondered if it might have been an antler doe...is this common...never saw a spike with a harem. And if it is common does it affect the quality or taste of the meat. Has to be a hormone thing.....The DNR guide here in IN list tags by antlered or non antlered....I was told just leave the head on till check in sex didn't matter if it had spikes....doesn't tell you much.

[bootshowl]

No I'm not a loon....the DNR rep I spoke with last year said he gets several calls a year, but the Burea of Animal Health isn't monitoring for this and say the meat is perfectly OK to eat. Just a freak of nature. Wonder what was up in other states and experience. He said he didn't know anything about the quality of meat.

[fish-n-fool]

A buddy of mine killed what he thought was a nice buck in October a bunch of years back. He called all excited saying he got a nice 9 point still in velvet (should have shed long ago in Ohio). I headed out to the woods to help and it wasn't until we field dressed the "buck" that we noticed. After noticing the lack of equipment we looked the deer over good - skinny neck, no equipment, nice rack???

We called the warden and he came to the check station to meet us. Sure enough it was an antlered doe. He had to use his buck tag - here in Ohio it doesn't matter what sex the deer is, the regs are based on antlered VS non-antlered deer.

As far as the meat - it was no different.

He had this antlered doe mounted because it was so unique, even though for Ohio standards it was not a trophy rack. It is a very neat mount. It was also his first "buck"

[stoney]

i think you would have to tag it as a buck

[bootshowl]

Yup. That's what the DNR rep said the calls were about. The huntin tag is 24$ for your buck, 15$ for an extra doe. Guys what got "fooled" felt it in the wallet too.

[Fishnhuntforever]

For me it is easy. I like deer meat. I haven't figured out how to make the antlers taste good yet. I am also not much of a trophy hunter. I just like having deer meat in my freezer. In California there are not many tags available that allows you to shoot a doe. I had one this year. I ended up shooting a buck but told myself that after four days if I had not found a decent bodied buck I was going to take the biggest ode I could find. You can get two tags here in California but they are over $25.00 a piece. I had my second tag but couldn't fill it. It was buck only. I would have taken a doe with antlers. I also don't eat anything from the nether regions. Intyeresting to know but for me I don't know if it matters as long as the meat is still good.