Justin Buchanan’s Crawford County 14-pointer made rounds in outdoor media because of the Georgia whitetail’s rack and apparent lack of male reproductive organs.
After a thorough check while field-dressing the deer, and a second opinion from his taxidermist, Buchanan was convinced the animal was an antlered doe.
“There was no sign of any male parts inside the deer, and she had four swollen nipples,” the lifetime Buckmasters subscriber said. “It looked like she was in estrus. I checked the tarsal glands when we were taking pictures, and they were snow white – no smell. I called my taxidermist on the way to the processor and told him about the tarsal glands and thought maybe the bucks weren’t rutting yet.”
His taxidermist assured Justin that middle-Georgia’s rut was in full swing.
Here in 2023, I’m not going to assume this deer’s gender, but even if the 7x7 identified as a doe, it was ultimately tagged as an antlered deer by Georgia law.
Charlie Killmaster, a deer biologist for the Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources, believes the whitetail was a hermaphrodite with underdeveloped male reproductive organs.
“It takes a considerable amount of testosterone for a deer to grow a full set of antlers,” Charlie said. “If you performed a necropsy on that deer, you’d more than likely find male parts in there somewhere.”
Justin green scored his biggest whitetail to date at 159 6/8 inches. He plans to have it officially scored by Buckmasters scorer Shannon Brock soon!
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