Stags

[98ag]

I hunt in Llano County and we see a good amount of stags. They are still in velvet and their balls have shriveled up. There seems to be some debate about whether or not they could ever grow back to normal. Has anyone ever heard of a study done on this? If they can't grow back then we should shot all of them that we see. If they can grow back then we should count them as a regular buck in our harvest count. Any thoughts? thanks

[Puncher51]

I hunt in Llano County and we see a good amount of stags. They are still in velvet and their balls have shriveled up. There seems to be some debate about whether or not they could ever grow back to normal. Has anyone ever heard of a study done on this? If they can't grow back then we should shot all of them that we see. If they can grow back then we should count them as a regular buck in our harvest count. Any thoughts? thanks

To my knowledge once they are stags they’ll always be stags.

[98ag]

Thanks, that makes the most since to me too but wanted to see if any had more experience with it.

[Puncher51]

Thanks, that makes the most since to me too but wanted to see if any had more experience with it.

We have some on our place in SE Mason County. I usually will see the same stags over multiple years.

[Hills of Texas]

What I’ve been told is that it is caused by a fungus/mold that grows on the granite out here. When ingested, it basically causes a chemical castration. The bucks never produce the hormones to trigger the velvet to shed. Llano county produces more stags than most other counties in Texas. I have seen them go hard horn in subsequent years but couldn’t tell you if that’s typical.

[Sika]

I hunt in Llano County and we see a good amount of stags.

You're probably the third Llano hunter I've heard say that. We have a velvet buck on our place but he looks like a yearling.

Two years ago, we took the dogs to find an old non-typical stag near the Sandstone ranch. He had 12 or 14 points, still in velvet, in December.
I also know a guy that hunt on the Chanas ranch and he said they have "a lot" of stags.
Something about Llano and stag bucks??
I don't know about the fungus theory. Cryptorchidism in dogs has a genetic component. I'm sure it's the same for deer.

[waterdog]

What I’ve been told is that it is caused by a fungus/mold that grows on the granite out here. When ingested, it basically causes a chemical castration. The bucks never produce the hormones to trigger the velvet to shed. Llano county produces more stags than most other counties in Texas. I have seen them go hard horn in subsequent years but couldn’t tell you if that’s typical.

^^^^ this

[Ishi&Elvis]

I think it is called hypogonadism, and TPWD did do a study on it if I recall correctly.

[Ishi&Elvis]

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_lf_w7000_1683_07_15.pdf

A little ways down in the article. We have them in SW Burnet county also with the granite gravel.

[Sika]

Interesting article...thanks for posting!

"The cause of this condition is unknown, but researchers concluded that it seems related to post-drought conditions. Researchers
believe it must be caused by consumption of some plant containing a gonadotoxin that proliferates in granite gravel soils
following drought."

This makes a lot of sense.

[deerwatcher51]

I had a buck once that was in full velvet the first of November, two weeks later when I saw him again, he was in hard antler. We took him that year and his testicals appeared to be all right. He had 16 scorable points and scored 150 at 6.5. I never did figure out what happened.

[breederbuck33]

We ran over a stag in Llano one Friday night probably 15 years ago. It was probably 5 miles from the football stadium and we barley got it out of the road before the visiting team's caravan drove by. We were sitting on the side of the road removing the front bumper because it was digging into our tire. A Sheriff pulled up on us and we were talking about the deer, and he told us that he was told it had to do something with all the peanut farms around there.

[big_smith]

Don't know the cause but three were killed at Enchanted Rock on the rifle hunt a few weeks ago.

[N.DaWoods]

I killed one a few years back in Burnet county

[Gus]

Don't know the cause but three were killed at Enchanted Rock on the rifle hunt a few weeks ago.

Yep we killed one there a few years back. The staff told us the same thing about the plant in the granite during times of drought.