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Dwarf Deer

This pic was taken in early october. The buck
In the back is a buck i know fairly well. He is relatively mature. But super short legged. During prime rut he looked like a bullldog when he swelled up from rut
 

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Imagine that just like in people, everyone is not the same. Maybe he had some dwarf genetics. Still an impressive rack. I can't say as though I have ever seen a buck, that by all appearances was mature, that was that small though.
 
I saw one in Missouri a couple of years ago that i was convinced was a dwarf deer. It was a short doe that weighed no more than 60-70 pounds but looked nothing like a yearling.
 
I shot a 10pt a few years ago that was tiny. I did a euro mount on him and even his skull was considerably smaller than all the other euro mounts that I have.i think he dressed out right at 98 lbs.
 

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That is a cool buck and he doesn't look that small till you put the glove and backpack on him. Unless you're a giant and that is why he looks small with your stuff on him. Below is a picture of small body buck from the mountains of Unicoi.
 

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That is really unusual! Wow. It's got to have some dwarfism in it, I would imagine. I think, for East TN deer, it falls outside the normal bell curve as far as size...especially considering his age and the fact he seems to be in good health. I bet that was a surprise when you walked up on him. LOL!
 
DMD said:
That is really unusual!
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For the area maybe, but around here it's pretty normal. I got a call from taxidermist this morning about my deer. He said the form I picked won't work because the deer's neck is too short. Full rutty neck but too short for a shoulder mount that shows brisket. He said it's not uncommon for my area. I giggled because I already knew that. The deer was a 5yr old 10pt that wasn't as big as a lot of yearlings.

First year TN had the velvet hunt I shot the 10pt in the picture. On trail cam and on hoof he looked like a big buck. And proportionately his rack is big for his body. But I'd be surprised if he weighed 100lbs. My brother was visiting from Ohio and was hunting with me. He burst into hysterical laughter when we walked up on the buck. On trail cam the buck looked like a big 10pt, but he's used to that deer up there being 250lbs.

I've tried telling folks about these mini deer but nobody seems to grasp it until they see it in person. They look like deer. They act like deer. They're just half the size. I don't believe it's dwarfism. But I don't know what it is. I've been told it's from reintroduction but I've also heard credible sources say it can't be. So who knows? Nonetheless, parts of the state have a variety of miniature deer.
 

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Ski said:
For the area maybe, but around here it's pretty normal. I got a call from taxidermist this morning about my deer. He said the form I picked won't work because the deer's neck is too short. Full rutty neck but too short for a shoulder mount that shows brisket. He said it's not uncommon for my area. I giggled because I already knew that. The deer was a 5yr old 10pt that wasn't as big as a lot of yearlings.

First year TN had the velvet hunt I shot the 10pt in the picture. On trail cam and on hoof he looked like a big buck. And proportionately his rack is big for his body. But I'd be surprised if he weighed 100lbs. My brother was visiting from Ohio and was hunting with me. He burst into hysterical laughter when we walked up on the buck. On trail cam the buck looked like a big 10pt, but he's used to that deer up there being 250lbs.

I've tried telling folks about these mini deer but nobody seems to grasp it until they see it in person. They look like deer. They act like deer. They're just half the size. I don't believe it's dwarfism. But I don't know what it is. I've been told it's from reintroduction but I've also heard credible sources say it can't be. So who knows? Nonetheless, parts of the state have a variety of miniature deer.
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That's really interesting. I've hunted in middle tn and east tn. A little bit in midwest tn, I've never seen that. A friend of mine hunted at AEDC years ago and told me that the deer there were tiny.
 
DMD said:
That's really interesting. I've hunted in middle tn and east tn. A little bit in midwest tn, I've never seen that. A friend of mine hunted at AEDC years ago and told me that the deer there were tiny.
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Yeah I hunt outside of AEDC but within a few miles of it. A biologist out there was actually one of the people who told me it's because of deer that were introduced and released on base. There were several places the deer came from. I don't recall them all but south TX was one of them.

It's crazy. Just a few miles north towards Murfreesboro or east to the plateau, west and south toward Franklin Co. and deer are pretty normal size. I even see a few here that are normal size. But most right around Manchester and AEDC are teenie weenie.
 
I killed a buck in middle Tennessee several years ago. When I first saw him at 300 yards or so, I thought there is a 150" deer. He managed to work through a thicket and stepped out right under me. I dropped him in his tracks. I was tore up. When I got down and grabbed his antlers, he felt like he weighed nothing. Mature deer with a small body. Fooled the heck out of me. This is what the deer looked like from the stand.

If I remember correctly he dressed out 115 lbs. He was no where near 150".
 

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webfeet7 said:
Backstory: In 2021 I started getting pictures of a deer that I figured was 3 1/2 years old and had a rack that was somewhere around 115-120 inches. I watched him that season to see what he would become. Summer 2022 I immediately start getting pictures of him again and he had put on about 10 inches. My first thoughts weren't on his rack, but about how huge his body looked. Everyone who saw pictures of this deer all said the same thing…he just looked like a massive deer. Keep in mind he was never in pictures with other deer so you couldnt really compare his body size.

2 days ago I ended up killing this deer and as soon as I walked up to him I was completely in shock. This deer was TINY. My first thought was that it looked like my golden retriever. I had a buddy come help me drag and he immediately started laughing at the size of this deer. After getting it out of the woods we weighed it and it weighed in at a whopping 100 pounds field dressed and stood only 34 inches tall at his shoulder. His nose was about 2 inches shorter than every deer I have on the wall. He still had an impressive rack gross scoring 125".

Has anyone had any similar experience with deer that seem almost miniature? I will try to include trail cam pictures and the best picture showing his actual size. This is in the East TN mountains for reference.
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Absolutely beautiful animal
 
Body size can throw you off in your estimation of the rack. I passed a buck 2x in illinois before i finally shot him. Heavy 9pt. He scored low 140s. I thought he would score 125 to 130 when he walked through because his body was so large
 
Ski said:
Yeah I hunt outside of AEDC but within a few miles of it. A biologist out there was actually one of the people who told me it's because of deer that were introduced and released on base. There were several places the deer came from. I don't recall them all but south TX was one of them.

It's crazy. Just a few miles north towards Murfreesboro or east to the plateau, west and south toward Franklin Co. and deer are pretty normal size. I even see a few here that are normal size. But most right around Manchester and AEDC are teenie weenie.
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I use to work at AEDC (when i was in college) 3 days a week. I would notice that deer were tiny. I figured it was that their was no ag around and lots of pines
 
Actually, see this all the time. It can be fun to compare buck height at a given camera location. How high is his back compared to a branch he has to stand under to work a scrape? Some bucks are very tall, some very short. But interestingly, it doesn't change their body morphology. In essence, they still show the musculature for their age.

As others have pointed it, deer are like people. Some guys are 5' 6". Some guys are 6' 6". But even a guy 5' 6" can have the same muscle-frame as a guy 6' 6".
 
Pretty cool deer. You can't tell how small he is until you see it with the glove on his body. Holy smokes. Very cool and unique. You can't full body mount him cause everyone will think your taxidermist used the wrong manikin 😂

Congrats.
 

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