Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting Albino/Piebald Deer

Thought I'd raise a new topic since no one's doing jack on the bowhunting board, and since a buddy tipped me off on the location of two albino whitetails recently. Maybe we'll get a chance to hunt them this week.<P>I've seen a lot of deer for a lot of years but never an albino or piebald.<P>How about the rest of you? Anyone think they shouldn't be killed? I have heard some antler freaks say that they are genetically inferior.<P>Would you take one if you got the chance?<P>Talus

Where my wife was raised there used to be a buck, doe, and fawn that were albino's. My father-in-law passed on them several times while hunting, but only because it was a little buck and he is a trophy hunter. I never saw them, but probably wouldn't have shot them either.<P>mike

for the life of me I can't figure out why someone wouldn't shoot a buck just because it's an albino.....heck I like white meat.....LOL.....if it was a big enough buck it better not get into my sight's.

After pondering this question further I have decided I would definitely shoot them to get their genes out of the gene pool.<P>Mike

Personally, I have never seen one except on TV but I do believe that hunters should actually try to remove these genetics from the gene pool by harvesting the piebald and albino animals. The deer certainly are pretty being oddly colored but I would hate to see the genetic trait enouraged by refusal to harvest or laws against harvesting.

I saw a black doe once. I understand Modoc county, CA. has produced an unusual number of black Rocky Mtn. Mule deer. None of which where throphy animals. That whole area went through many years of three point, or better, regulations. It's full of big deer with small, puny racks. Most people don't understand that the big ones start out that way. The first Burro Deer I saw killed was a perfect, square, 22 inch 4X4. He was a yearling. Baby, or milk, teeth and all. E

Anything unusual tends to interest me and albinos fit the bill. I'd be curious as to general locations of where white and piebald animals have been seen. I'd shoot one if it was legal. I've seen two piebald deer while huntng, one a blacktail doe a year ago, that looked like an appaloosa. Her head and neck were normal, but white spots started from her ribs back till her rump was white with brown spots and her hind legs pure white. Very pretty animal. She had a fawn with her that was normal in color. A few years ago I stopped to look over a piebald, fresh road killed blacktail doe west of Port Angeles, WA near Lake Crescent. <p>Must be 30 years ago I saw a piebald faced doe in Ventura County, California. About five years ago I saw an all white doe feeding beside I-5 about halfway between Mt. Vernon and Everett, Washington. A good sized fork horn full albino buck lived for at least two years up in Whatcom County, WA. Two friends of mine saw the buck, and one of them saw it twice, a good sized fork horn both years. These would all be blacktails except for whatever category they put the California critters that look like scaled down mule deer.<p>As for other critters, I watched a totally black cow elk over in Idaho for about 20 minutes one time, in good sunlight about 400 yards from me. She was with a normal herd. Beautiful animal. I'd love to have that hide tanned. Her rump was kind of a charcoal grey.<p>A partner and I had a snow white grizzly bear move into camp with us on the Continental Divide while sheep hunting nearly 20 years ago, between BC and Alberta. It looked to be about a 350-400 lb. bear, about the size of a large black bear. At times it was within 40 feet of us, but neither of us remembers if it had the pink eyes or nose of a true albino. My older and wiser partner said we either had to shoot the bear or leave but he was not going to sleep in a tent with a grizzly that close. We packed the tent in my Bronco and left. We heard later that a game warden had seen the bear in the same pass.

I have seen full body mounts of albino and piebald deer but never a live one. Someone mentioned a black elk and that made me remember a funny story....<p>We had a black deer on our hunting lease. It had been seen several times after dark as we were driving the road heading off of the ranch. It was an eight point, nothing in the real trophy catagory, but a mature buck. We had all seen this deer in the headlights and close up. He did not have a speck of white nor any other color. He was pure and solid black. Well, we talked about it for a while and finally one of the hunters decided he had to have this black deer to hang on the wall. <p>We helped him move a portable stand into the area and he started hunting it. Finally, one evening just at dark we heard him shoot. We were all excited because we knew that he had killed the black buck. When he came back to camp he had a long face and my first thought was "how did he miss". Someone asked "did you get him?" The answer was yes, but you won't beleive it until you see it. <p>To get to the point, we went back to help load the buck and broke out laughing our buts off when we saw that the reason that buck was black was he had fallen into a drip pit and was covered with oil. To add insult to injury he had shot while the deer was facing him. The bullet entered above the brisket between the front legs and exited, well let's just say under the tail. That was with out a doubt the worst field dressing job I have ever taken part in. [img]images/icons/tongue.gif" border="0[/img]

Talus,
Good post! I've raised a simular question to other bowhunters and get varied opinions. <p>To answer your question...Yes, I'd shoot an albino or piebald deer for 2 reasons. It's something different that I'd like to harvest. The other reason is to get them out of the gene pool.<p>The question I've asked was:
If an 8 pointer (respectable sized, but not huge) and a same body sized piebald doe stopped in front of your stand, which one would you shoot?<p>The answers vary from person to person. [img]images/icons/crazy.gif" border="0[/img] <p>Good hunting, Bowhunter57

57, right now I'd say the doe. I have some average 8 point racks but no piebald. However, seeing the horns in the field might change my mind. I'd rather see them about 15 minutes apart and zing both!<p>Okanagan, that's a lot of white criters. I would love to see a white Grizzly. Wouldn't it have been great to have a camera?<p>I hadn't thought at all about black phases. I would shoot one without hesitation, and not for genetic reasons. Ditto for black bear (which eluded me during hunting season, but not on preseason scouting trips [img]images/icons/smile.gif" border="0[/img] .<p>A friend of mine has the skinny on two white does, but I haven't managed to hunt them this year. They are on public land, too.<p>Good hunting, Jeff

Talus, keep after those bears. Better luck on them next year. I guess my number of white critters is what you get from fascination with animals, aging and having spent a huge amount of time in the bush. I figured out several years ago that I'd spent close to two years of my life sleeping on the ground, most of that from the Rockies west, Mexico to the Yukon, plus some on the Canadian Shield. If I cash in today, I've had a good life and lived most of the adventures I dreamed of as a kid on the farm. Sure wish I could try some bear calling with you.

Re: camera & the white bear. My partner and I have kicked ourselves that we didn't photograph the white griz. We each had an SLR camera in the Bronco. We weren't doing our best thinking when the bear strolled into camp. We got rifles handy without much thought of camera.

I'm not positive, but I believe they are protected here in Illinois.

Here in Oklahoma I beleive they are protected also. A few years back someone collected a pie-bald buck and got a lot of publicity out of it. The DOW responded by making it illegal to take a white deer. Not sure where they draw the line between just whitefaced and full albino. <p>There are several biologists who have linked the piebald gene with several undesirable traits. If legal it's probably better to get them out of circulation.

one Piebald made the mistake of stoping infront of me a few years back and got its self killed.it was a rather nice 8 point buck scoreing out at 143 1/2".one of my friends killed an Albine button buck this past gun season and it had two Albino does with it.there is somethin about this county that produces wild lookin deer.

A 143 albino? Wow! I don't even dream that big. Got a pic?
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<br>Jeff

Friend and I were hunting last fall in eastern Colorado. We were doing some glassing and couldn't believe our eyes..... There was a young albino doe mule deer! Closer inspection revealed she was only mostly white. The rest of her was white and speckled brown. We concluded that if the thing had antlers OR we had doe tags, that little critter might have put a serious wedge in our friendship!