# can a doe have horns?



## lil_lee_hunter (Nov 28, 2003)

i have herd of does being able to grow horns all my life. but i dont know weither or not to believe that. is it true.


----------



## njsimonson (Sep 24, 2002)

Yup, does can grow antlers.

Last year I did an article for the Valley City Times-Record about a local resident who shot a non-typical buck, and when he went to gut it there was no male genitalia on it. Instead it had the female equipment.

I talked with Terry Steinwand and other biologists for the article and they said a rack, like the 12-point rack on the doe in this instance, was very rare, something like 1 in 250,000 adult does sport noticeable racks.

Sometimes, does will grow small pedicles or inch-long spikes, much like a button buck, but this is still rare, like 1 in 100,000 does or so.

The reasons for this are many, such as genetic flaws, hormonal imbalance or others. But just to let you know, there are some does with antlers, and some are taken each season throughout the upper midwest. That's why your ND lisence says "antlered" or "antlerless," not 'buck' or 'doe.'


----------



## djleye (Nov 14, 2002)

My father in law shot a deer last year and being the suck up that I am I went to gut it. It had a horn on one side only. I flipped the deer over and found it was indeeed a doe!!!!


----------



## krissy (Dec 19, 2003)

Yes, does can definetely have horns. I live in Alaska and this past August I shot what I thought was a buck until I went to gut it. It has some pretty amazing horns. It is still at the taxidermy. I have a picture that I can email if you would like to see it.


----------



## bigblackfoot (Mar 12, 2003)

Yeah my dad shot one with velvet on it. The deer only had two 5 inch forks but, when we flipped it over, no nuts. It suprised the sh#t out me. Pretty cool though


----------



## GunRunner (Oct 18, 2004)

Actually,

i had a customer come by about 5 years ago with a antlered doe. it was one of the biggest racks id seen in awhile. it had totally grown out of control, and had about 30 points on each side ( looked like a couple of old knotted up stumps on its head, like somone had afffixed some old knotted up burl to its head or something), and it was also in velvet. he thought at first it was just some sort of old stag or something, and found it strange that when all of the other bucks were polished off, that this one was still in velvet. he contacted the California Department of Fish and Game, and a warden came out to look it. he conf. that it was indeed an antlered doe, and requested that the guy "donate" the deer to them for research, which he did after getting photos with it. they promised him the return of the antlers, which , by the way, he never got back.


----------



## quackattack (Sep 27, 2003)

It is indeed true. I never would've believed it had I not seen one this year.
A guy I hunted with shot one with his bow the night before deer gun season opened. It had only about a 3inch antler on one side but had female parts.
Quite neat actually!


----------



## GunRunner (Oct 18, 2004)

i bet ifyou had a doe penned up, and shot it up with testosterone, you could get a hugh rack going ....it might turn into a Morphadite though...LOL.....

sorry i havent ben around much lately. i just bought DOMAIN and im in the process of settng up one hell of a firearms auction site, much bigger than gunbroker or gunsamerica.

ill let you guys know when its up and running. maybe ill raffle off ( with the admins permission of course) a lifetime member ship to everything, including lifetime email, or something like that.

anyway, got to go. catch you guys later


----------



## Mud15 (Sep 24, 2004)

how bout a free rifle i need one! :lol:


----------



## GunRunner (Oct 18, 2004)

we could maybe raffle a rifle off. ive got a couple of nice ruger M77 MKII in 223......

maybe 5.00 a ticket or 5 for 20.00 or something like that.

good idea.


----------



## OneShotOneKill (Feb 13, 2004)

Yes, does can grow antlers but they have velvet on them because female deer lack the hormones to rub their antlers.


----------



## leadshot (Aug 2, 2004)

All I had this year was doe permits. Had a nice one jump up in front of me in the rushes and dropped it out about 40 yrds in front of me, when I got up to it, I was a little perturbed that it had buttons on it's head, My friend came up and I told him it was a button buck but he never really looked at the head, when we turned it over to gut it, he says what the h#ll are you smoking, this is a doe. it had no nuts. Well I had him run his hand over it's head and sure enough, it had the start of a rack. He says, oh, it's one of those. What a surprise!!! It's a buck trapped in a doe's body..hahaha.


----------



## GunRunner (Oct 18, 2004)

i think theres actually alot more of them out there than people realise. im sure it has to do with older animals ( for the most part and a lack of hormones or something....


----------



## summitx (Oct 30, 2004)

yes they can, even cow moose can have them, Fish & game up here in Alaska put out a notice in a area that there is a cow with a calf and the cow sporting a set of antlers


----------

