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

Wife and I were traveling in her car and there was a dead piebald doe along side the road just south of Rutledge GA.

I saw a piebald 6 point about 15 years ago and I let him walk. He was a young deer in apparently good health and I figured in a couple of years he would be a nice buck for someone. I didn't let him walk because he was a piebald. Never saw him again or heard of him being seen.

5 or 6 years ago my nephew saw this piebald fawn bedded down on the same property that I saw the 6 point on. He didn't bother the fawn and eased out of the area. A couple of years later, on a neighboring property, a friend saw what we think was the same deer. We haven't seen it since.

Superstitions.

I've shot several over the yrs would shoot another one in a heartbeat

If it was a deer I wanted to shoot otherwise, it wouldn't make a difference to me it it was piebald, albino or not.

Piebald…yes. We have had a few of them in this region, and I would probably shoot one if I had the opportunity. Albino…no. We had a pure Albino doe hanging on the property we hunt back in 2015 and marveled in it’s coolness for about 3 years until it jumped out in front of a neighbor on the main road and got hit and killed. We had a gentlemen’s agreement among the bordering properties to not shoot it. We figured it was a once in a lifetime deer, and so far it has been.

Doc_Holidude

I've never seen a piebald or albino muley but they do exist. I read that they only appear in about 1 in several million deer.

I would admire but let walk either whitetail specimens each. Might try to get a pic to show the other hunters I work with and my family..

Yes

Yes, I’d shoot one for its hide and would tan it hair on. We have quite a few piebald blacktail deer in NW Washington State. I’ve seen at least 15 and maybe 20 of them over the past 25 years plus one pure all white one, though it was not an albino and had a black nose and dark eyes. Whatcom and Skagit counties have some white genes as do Jefferson and Clallam on the Penninsula and Orcas Island.

I saw a pair of twin piebald/Appaloosa marked fawns last week a mile from our house, getting close to yearlings and still with their mother. If they were extremely rare here I’d pass. Saw one partly white deer in Southern California some 50 years ago, Ventura County.

don't care what color it's hide is , brown grey piebald albino if its legal and offers a killing shooters dead

I saw one piebald spike on my lease this past year. He had a big blonde patch on the top of his head. I decided not to whack him and let him grow to see how he turns out.

Was Michael Jackson piebald?

Trying to pick him out on a cell phone screen is like watching a ghost too.

Same here. It's a genetic trait that makes the deer lees likely to survive and procreate in the wild anyway. Probably best for the herd in the long run to remove them from the population.

I learned long ago not to pass up a good shot at a legal deer be it buck or doe. The myth is that it brings bad luck to shoot a piebald deer but I don't believe it at all.

Sherwood

Never had to make the decision. If I ever run into one , I’ll make the decision whether to shoot or not like every other time. Hasbeen

Late 1980's my buddies property had a piebald doe running around. It was about 90% pure white with a few dark patches. My buddy called it "the albino" and thought it was cool. I could only hunt on his land if I promised not to shoot "the albino". Then; sure enough at first light one morning I had it standing still and broadside to me at no more than 25 yards. Even had a doe tag for that area but at least it was cool to watch it for a few minutes before it wandered off. Then a couple weeks later it got killed down on the highway at the bottom of his hill. Too bad one of us didn't harvest it during deer season. The hide would have been neat to have tanned.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ In SE Alaska they have the occasional albino black bear. It's illegal to shoot them. Something as rare as either one of those, I'd prefer to just appreciate.

I haven’t read through this whole thing but I really don’t get this aversion to shooting one. It’s a just genetic color abnormality. Why not? It’s actually good for the herd to remove the trait in the long run.