A few sika photos below.....are the broke off guys record book caliber if they weren't broke?

Also I understand there's a couple types of Sika...these are Japanese, correct?

The middle one is a good one.

The bottom pic is a pretty average sika buck

this is a exceptionally large mature male. BTW these are japaneese sika....top out around 100 lbs. the Dybowski are larger about the size of a mature whitetail and the Manchurian are larger still.

Nice critters

I was hunting Axis last summer With Pope Brothers and we got close (125yards) to a velvet horned Japanese Sika that was veryyyyyyyyy long. Sika deer don't do it for me but this buck was very long and had me reaching for my rifle before he bolted.

That Moultrie photo is indeed a big boy...thanks for responding.

I’ll put up a few more pics of trophy size Sika in a few min


I had always heard they were nasty to eat....I shot one when I was 13 and don’t remember much of it

I shot a rutted up mature buck that was so stinky you could smell him 50 yards away.

Best eating animal I’ve ever tasted, and I’ve tried a lot of different animals

The first two are more typical of the average size of japaneese sika deer you will see. The bottom one is an extremely large specimen ( Gold Medal for R.O.E is 92"...he went 112")


Sika typically have 3 points per side with the larger ones growing a 4th. very interesting animals, the more I am around them the more I enjoy them.....very aggressive and will run just about anything off a feeder, except a aoudad I have found. they are miniature elk basically and behave in much the same manner.

Which Sika species is more prevalent in Texas?

The ones I have seen free range have all been jap Sika.

High fence I’ve seen more dybowski and manchurian

Great information - Thank you very much for responding. Helps a lot!

Thank you very much for your response - this really helps! Since I've gone to running five large 1500lb. feeders they have a constant and reliable source of supplemental food. We're low fenced so competing with whoever has best opportunity around us.

Before.... my smaller feeders were constantly running dry (4 hour drive each way so we didn't always make it out promptly) and the animals (Axis and Sika) were much more nomadic. For last year we're seeing same animals every time we pull camera cards.....Also noticed more and more does hanging around and we all know where they're at the bucks will eventually be too.

I don't have many Sika photos but here's one.

This one went Silver

That's a fine looking buck, congrats on a great trophy!

the way they score them in North America for SCI is not a level playing field. a Jap sika (look at Maryland sika deer) are a very small deer and will top out around 100 lbs and will have antlers proportionate to their bodies. most are just a 3x3.

the dybowski are bigger, whitetail sized animals and the Manchurians can get 250+ lbs.


they are all scored the same, however for SCI. so its like a coues whitetail competing against a Canadian deer in Boone & Crockett.

This is the big one in the bottom picture I posted up Earlier. Even against the unlevel playing field he went into the SCI book as no. 21 all time taken with a Bow. Shot on a low fence place he may be way up there if they had a category for low fence or just Japanese Sika.

Si...i shot an old Dybowski pushing 280lbs and he was as well stinky but beautiful animal and he was good to eat but the jap. sika i shot was excellent, right their with Axis.

Heres my big Dybowski, usually wont see them.on low fence their not as common as the Japs.

Some really good photos in this post. Thanks guys.

Nice. I'm just learning about Sika deer, and most other exotics. Traditionally I've hunted land that is exotic free and you only see native whitetail, as well as turkey and plenty of coyote and hogs.