BIG DEER TV producer Justin Karnopp sent me this text: Shot velvet buck with no testicles. Coolest buck I’ve ever killed!
I can’t wait to see the video footage. This will make a terrific episode for next season, as a stag buck like this is very rare.
According to QDMA a birth defect known as cryptorchidism causes a buck to keep velvet antlers beyond the normal velvet-shedding time of late summer:
In extreme cases both testicles remain in the abdominal cavity and never descend into the scrotum. The normal production of testosterone is diminished, and the antler cycle of hardening, velvet shedding and antler casting is altered. These same results can sometimes be produced in a buck that is born normal but subsequently suffers a testicular injury.
Cryptorchid bucks are different. They don’t participate in the seasonal rituals of normal bucks. Because their testosterone levels remain low in early fall, their antler development is not completed, and their velvet is not shed. Cryptorchid bucks don’t participate in signpost behavior… They lack the chemical stimulation to express their dominance and individualism… the necks of cryptorchid bucks do not swell as the breeding season approaches. Reproductively, they are in neutral. Antlers are not shed, and they remain in velvet year round… the antlers continue to grow as the animal matures.
I all my travels and hunting I have never seen a stag buck, have you? If anybody has shot one, send me a picture!
I have been hunting in willow city texas 20 years now and almost every year i harvest at least 1 this year i have harvested 2 one yestrday i thought was a doe laying down looking at me upon retrieval it had shallow nubbin i could not see but they were just level with the hair protruding the skin so that was my trophy this year lol its the way it rolled huh? I have pictures but i cant see a link here to upload let me know how and ill send a few pics of stags thats been harvested out here a local meat processor has told me the cause is from the bucks earing a mossy fern growth on surface of rocks on creeks in there adolescence is this true i wonder if he is on to somthing the owners of the ranch here says if mr rabke says somthing about wildlife i can take it as gospel!
Upon butchering the buck I found that he did have testes but they were tucked up in the abdominal cavity.