[Rhodes22-list] Female With Nice Rack

[Brad Haslett]

Been a bit busy lately to participate with 'da list' but thought this
worthwhile.  Enjoy.  Brad

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Man shoots doe with rack of antlers

Mon Nov 27, 10:31 PM ET

When Carmen Erickson dropped a deer with a single shot in a cattail slough
south of here, he thought he'd downed a nice buck. Unlike his shot, he was a
little off. The deer was a doe.

"It's got no male utilities," said Erickson, who lives in Minot. "It has
teats ... it was pretty unusual."

Six hunting partners with Erickson witnessed the doe with a 4-by-4 rack.

"I'm sure this story will be around for 10 years," he said. "At least in our
group."

Erickson notified the state Game and Fish Department and received a voice
mail from a biologist who said these types of deer often are bucks whose
testicles haven't descended or for some reason are castrated. Erickson said
that is not the case with his deer, however.

"We couldn't find any male genitals on the deer," he said.

"We turned it over, and I got a lot of heat over that. Like I was supposed
to know," Erickson joked.

Gary Rankin, district game warden in Larimore, said he has seen a couple of
antlered does over the years, but for a doe to have a well-developed rack is
unusual.

It is not the first antlered doe to be reported in the region this year. A
conservation officer for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
reported seeing a 10-point antlered doe shot near Robbin, Minn., during that
state's firearms deer season. DNR conservation officers in other parts of
Minnesota also reported a handful of antlered does.

Erickson said the antlered doe is a first for his crew, which has been
hunting together for 25 years.

"It definitely was a keeper, he said.