Louisiana Hunters – Ever See a Deer this Small with a Rack This Big?

Louisiana sportsmen love to hunt deer. And when it comes to deer it's all about the rack size. Okay, not totally but when it comes to mounting a trophy for the wall the size and spread of the antlers has a lot to do with it.

Most of the time the larger the rack, the larger the deer, right? This is a case of a hunter spotting a trophy buck but not realizing just what a unique creature he had harvested. Now for those of you who know hunting you'd probably agree that a buck with a score of 127 is a pretty good kill. No, it's not a headline maker but in this case it's another stat about the animal that makes this story intriguing.

Back on December 16th James Keel of Mississippi was hunting in the Mississippi Delta near his Hernando Mississippi home. James, in speaking to reporters, said the hunt that morning was pretty lackluster until about 8:30. Then things got really interesting.

According to an account published by USA Today James said he was in his deer stand when he noticed a rustling in the brush near him. He could make out a doe being pursued by a buck. It's the classic case of a boy chasin' a girl. But in this case, James noticed the rack on the buck and decided to take his shot.

James knew that the deer he shot was not a large animal, but he had no idea just how small this trophy buck was until he managed to track it down and recover the animal. Can you imagine his surprise when he discovered the deer weighed less than 100 pounds? It weighed in at 93.3 pounds in total.

Normally a deer with a rack of a similar size would weigh in excess of 200 pounds. That's when James, and I have to admit, and me learned that there is such a thing as a dwarf deer.

So, basically the deer was about the same size a large dog. You can really get an idea of the size when you see the pictures.

One outdoor expert surmised that if the deer that James harvested was a "normal size" the rack on it would have been earned a score of over 250 which would be an incredible trophy as well. That same expert explained how the deer may have found itself in James' site on that December morning.

Apparently back in the day, Mississippi brought in hundreds of dwarf deer to help supplement the deer population in the state. But the expert with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife suggested that this deer was probably not one of those deer or its offspring but was a genetic anomaly. Which is quite the counter balance to the "big deer" story we shared with you a few weeks back.

We still have a few more weeks a good hunting left in Louisiana too. If you're unsure about which season and what restrictions are in place for the different parts of the state you can verify that information here, at the Department of Wildlife website.