Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Field & Stream, Scott Bestul article - Would You Shoot an Albino or Piebald Deer?

Rooster 7, as a kid I was told killing an albino deer was "bad luck"! I have never seen either while hunting in the past 49 years so it hasn't been an issue!

I killed a 7 pointer in 2014 that had piebald markings on his front legs and chest. I didn't even see them before I shot. I don't remember ever seeing any others at our camp.

not sure, never seen one

Shot a nice eight that was a piebald several years ago . Thanksgiving morning, was pushed for time for dinner , made a quick walk up the mountain and a doe blowed to the left of me .
When I looked over I spotted him about 50-60 yds .
Had seen him earlier when they were still running in a bachelor bunch . There were three of them , another buck , scraggly rack and a doe , not the one that blew at me .
Had my Valmet 12/06 , leveled the rifle and shot .
He just stood there fixed on the doe .
I thought , WTH ?
Round two , he’s still standing there , hasn’t flinched , now my mind is racing all kinds of WTH thoughts .
Round three , he wobbled but still standing , finally collapsed . Time is getting critical , gutted him snatched him by the horns and down the mountain I went , moving so fast bout ran me over on a couple steep parts , lol .
Hung him up , took a couple Polaroid pictures to show dad , he was bed fast on feeding tubes .
His eyes watered up when I showed him the pictures , he loved hunting .
Got back from dinner ,proceeded to skin him out , never in my entire life have I seen so many ticks fall off a deer , literally rained ticks . Meat had tiny red streaks through the entire meat structure . Three holes through the ribs right behind elbow of shoulder , 180 grain Winchester fail safes . Doe had him in a bad way . Rolled the hide up and put on truck seat to take to a taxidermist and ticks were still crawling off him .
When we rolled him out on the table still ticks comming out as I was telling the taxidermist the story , he was astonished at the ticks comming out of the hide , espeacially after dragging and hanging for several hours .
Bad mojo , I don’t know , but threw the meat away , broke my heart to do it , but those red streaks and the very high number of ticks was enough for me .
Had him mounted and hide tanned , only deer I ever mounted , been close to 25 yrs ago and still looks good .
17” inside spread and tines were eight to ten inches tall .

Kenneth66

I've killed 3 piebald deer, 2 bucks and 1 doe so far.

Here is one my Cousin spotted. He had seen it previously around his place. I went over and got a pic before it jumped up and ran off....

They are genetically inferior and where legal should be shot ones sentiments aside.

https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/content/blogs/the-ethical-hunter/should-we-shoot-albinos

Well, we all know Vic_in_Va's answer to this question !

And the next to last sentence was what?

Nor does it appear the few that are birthed are causing any harm to the population genetics over a long history of development. Shoot them if you wish, however genetically inferior is a weak argument to do so.

If the difference would show on a shoulder mount I'd shoot it if it was a legal deer. I wouldn't shoot a buck during an antlerless season or an antlerless deer during a bucks only season.

Not legal here and I've never seen one. If it were legal I would consider them fair game. Cougars, wolves and coyotes would too, they aren't superstitious.

I would not shoot it. I'm not superstitious, but I've always heard that Indian folklore says that it's bad Mojo.

I knew a guy that shot a piebald doe and had a full body mount done. His brother actually works for me, so we've had this discussion before. The year after he got the mount back from the taxidermist, he came down with brain cancer. He died the following year. About 5 years ago, his widow was getting rid of all of his stuff and they took the piebald to his mother's house. That Winter her house burned to the ground.

I had this piebald doe hanging around my house for a couple of years. She ended up getting hit by a car when it was snowing one day. The interesting thing was that it appeared as though the herd shunned her. She was usually by herself. Whenever you'd see her with the herd, she was always off to the side alone.

Ha, I saw a all white doe a couple of weeks ago, got a far cell phone pic. Mostly private land but only about 2 miles from where I hunt. Iv also heard the bad mojo if you shoot one. I seen 3 piebalds had a six point in a food plot at 18 yrds for 30 mins, I had taken a 4 pt the week before, so legaly I couldn't shoot him. Saw a spike when I was about 20, 60 yards away, need him to step clear of a tree. He walked straight away no shot. And a few years ago out just driving around saw a piebald feeding near the road, it was short legged, had a short neck and a small head. Not good genetics in that one at all. And as said all of these deer the three pie balls and the albino deer were by them selves so that might be something to what one of the other posters was saying.

the last deer my dad shot was a piebald doe. it is the only one i have ever seen.

I killed an 11 point a few years ago that had more white on it's legs than normal and the white on the belly was higher up the body than normal.
A couple of guys had seen him and called him Old White Legs. So yes I wouldn't hold it against a deer for being too white.

If it was a really fine buck, yes. Here's one that went the other way Cookie caught just preseason last fall. It's no longer with us, and no, I did not have a tag.
She also encountered a black fawn (born spring 2021) and a black doe (yearling born 2020) both about 20 miles away from this buck. They all seem to mingle well with the other 99.99%.

In the last 8 years we think we've had encounters with at least six black examples with all but this one being does.



She's yet to catch up with an albino, but we'll put some pics up when it happens.

There were quite a few piebalds in my area about 30 years ago. I shot a mostly white doe in ‘91 or ‘92. Had the hide tanned hair on. My son has it now. Haven’t seen one in at least 15 years.

The town of Saint Germain, Wisconsin used to have a whole herd of them wandering around the town. Don't think it was legal to shoot them.

Wow, that's crazy. I don't believe I've seen even a picture of a black colored deer, 'til now.

Not going to shoot a Piebald or white deer.