When trying to bag and tag a trophy deer, its usually a competition of “go big or go home.”
However, this Alabama hunter is getting a lot of attention for managing to take down a deer that was uniquely small. Josh Crocker hunted down a dwarf piebald buck back in November, and though it still had an 8-point rack, it weighed less than 100 pounds.
The deer, which suffered from dwarfism, was 4 and a half years old when the Alabama hunter took it down in the Talladega National Forest. Crocker told Field & Stream that the takedown of this rare deer was something that had been in the works for a long time:
“I saw him for the first time while bow hunting about three years ago. I just got a glimpse of him that first year and then never saw him in person again until I shot him.
There’s only one way in and out of the property, and it’s highly pressured. I’m surprised this deer survived as long as he did.”
Crocker went on to say that he pursued the rare dwarf buck last hunting season with no luck, though he did pick it up on trail cameras he set up in the area:
“I hunted him hard last year but only managed to get trail camera photos of him. He had a nice 9-point rack in those photos, and that’s when I noticed how short and stubby-legged he was. And he also had a real bad overbite.”
On November 22nd, Crocker decided to go deep into the national forest to try and take down the dwarf deer once and for all. It was around 11 in the morning that a buck with a white chest came walking down towards his hunting spot, and the Alabama hunter knew it was the deer he had been searching for.
Once it got within range, Crocker took the shot, and the buck crashed down just 40 yards away from where the Alabama hunter was set up. The dwarf deer weighed only 88 pounds after Crocker field dressed, and he believes it would have come in under 100 pounds before he gutted it.
How cool of a trophy deer is that?
Crocker says that the dwarf piebald deer was perfectly proportioned, and he’s having a trusted taxidermist do a full body mount of the mini buck.
