Too big, too ugly

Published 8:45 am Monday, December 21, 2015

Pictures of all of them have appeared this year. A 300-, 400-, even a 500-inch white-tailed deer.

And to be honest, they are as ugly as Frankenstein. In fact, that is kind of what they are, Frankendeer. Laboratory experiments that should have never happened. Freaks. Not of Nature because Nature would have never done something this outrageous.

These are freaks of man. They haven’t brought out the best genetics like is done with racehorses, they have twisted the genetics by adding a little of this and a little of that.

The sad part is these deer are worth tens of thousands of dollars each, and not just as huntable animals, but as sires for generations of freakish deer to come in the future. On the hoof as a hunted buck they are worth tens of thousands more to someone. Not to me and I don’t think to most hunters.

In Texas, the gate is already open to this industry. It will ever close unless the demand dries up. As long as there are people with more money and an ego that needs to be feed than sense that is not going to happen.

Deer farming in Texas is big money and has some big supporters. That trumps any legislative action that might shut down these operations.

And don’t get me wrong. I have no interest in forcing them to close. I have always supported a landowner’s ability to pay for his land. I just may not always agree on how they chose to do it, and this is one example where I don’t.

A Texas white-tailed deer is not designed to carry 400-plus inches of antler. Even 300 inches is a huge stretch.

Years ago a local hunter killed an odd, heavy-horned buck still in velvet late in the season near Wichita Falls. For fun we put those antlers on a scale and they weighed 16 pounds. They were not even half the size of some of the antlers coming off today.

Just this week a friend in the deer business told me it is commonplace to cut the antlers off some of these pen-reared 1-year-old deer because the young buck just can’t hold them off. Yet the breeders continue efforts to grow them even larger.

I may be in the minority, but to be honest I would rather kill a classic 8-point or a 10 than any of these big deer. And I will go with Boone & Crockett on my standard of excellence, 170 is the benchmark for an outstanding typical buck and 190 the standard for a non-typical.

To me these deer, and to a degree the people who breed them, are sending a bad message that could hurt the future of hunting. They are creating an unrealistic idea of what is a trophy.

Also, orking strictly behind high fence, and again I have no problem with high-fenced ranches that are large enough to manage a wild herd, the breeders also continue for more autonomy away from the hunting regulations of the state. They want the freedom to operate as if they were raising these deer as livestock, putting and taking animals when they want and as they want.

For every hunter a trophy deer is different. To me, Frankendeer will never be a trophy.