There is just something about hunting white-tailed deer that seems right. The predator-prey relationship between hunters and whitetail has existed for centuries, and something must be working because we still have hunters, we still have deer, and we still have deer hunting. Every deer is special, but it is especially memorable when a hunter has the opportunity to take a unique animal, such as a strange-antlered buck, or because of the odd manner in which the deer was harvested, or because the deer has an uncommon color, such as an albino or a piebald.
After reading the title to this article you know that we are talking about piebald deer today. And you have to admit, there is just something special about a deer does not look like other deer. The fact that color abnormalities are fairly rare makes a piebald deer a trophy for any hunter, whether it be a buck or a doe. Joshua Asher was hunting in Wayne National Forest in Hocking County, Ohio, when he had the opportunities of a lifetime. No he didn’t see several piebald deer, but he saw some strange colored deer on more than one occasion.
“I have hunted at Wayne National Forest every year with my father, brother, uncles and cousin since I was twelve years old. We have all hunted pretty much the same area every year, and we know it well. About five years ago while in my stand, I had seen an all black buck running with another buck, but they were to far to take any kind of of shot. That was the only different looking buck I had ever seen until this one.
Fast forward: Sitting in the same stand five years later, I had no idea that this piebald buck was in the area. I was actually was looking for a much larger buck that had rubbed and scrapped up the valley in front of me. When this buck came along, I just had to try an take him instead. I made the shot count.
There is a couple weird things about the buck other than being a piebald. The buck had two male parts, which is obviously really strange. The other weird thing is when my cousin and I got to the check in station over 20 miles away we really did not even know what a piebald deer was, we just knew we had a strange deer that had white where there should not have been and an extra male part.
Once inside the check station, my cousin asked the man behind the counter if he had ever see a deer with white all over. The man looked up at us and said no, but then he told us they are called piebald. Then I said, “We got one in our truck.” All of a sudden, everyone in the place started making a huge fuss about having a piebald buck in the parking lot and they all rushed outside to see him.
Even another hunter who was already in the parking lot with a nice 12 point buck walked over with the person checking him in and congratulated me. While there was a huge crowd around the back of the truck, the person who had just checked me in started snapping some pictures.
A man that was looking at the piebald buck looked up and asked if we got him in Wayne National Forest. My cousin and I said yes, but we were not going to say exactly where. Immediately, you could see a sour look on his face when he said, “I have the best picture of this deer you shot.”
The fellow held out his camera phone and showed us a picture of the same deer eating in front of him. The hunter told us he and a few other hunters had been hunting this deer for the last two years, and he had taken a shot at him with a bow after snapping the picture on his phone about a month earlier, but had missed.”
Lucky for Joshua, but the 8 point piebald buck was destined to be some lucky hunter’s trophy. Congrats to the successful hunter!