Let's see your ugly bucks

The ugly buck thread in the photos section got me to thinking about some ugly bucks I've shot in the past. Post up some of your ugliest bucks you've shot.

Here's my two..

First is an old cull I shot about 4 years ago at my FIL's place in Freestone Co. His antlers went pretty much straight up and out, not forward.



Second is a cull I shot in Ozona last year. Slick main beam on one side, minus the browtine.

Stag buck


7 Pt

7 pointer

I have one like that bottom on this year only one side is a can opener, the other just has little bumps along the MB where his tines should be. He's old as dirt and was a good 8pt for the area a cpl years ago.

Super crab claw 8, will likely be be considered a 6pt we are after this year.

dang! is that a slick horn all the way up on this left side?

that deer would've been really cool in a year or 2

Maybe so, but we watched him get progressively closer together from 2012-14 so it was time to end it.

Neat looking buck. We killed on like it off our place a few years back. One main beam was deformed where the other one grew against it.

I like the "ugly" bucks.

ugly ones are my favorite

Me too. We have some interesting ones. Got one 5 point where his brow tine is as tall as the main beam. Another has a flat rack where all his antlers are short and the main beams grow out to the side.

Now I just need to find more time to go get rid of some of them.

Same here. I like the odd looking bucks that no one wants to shoot. Everyone at the lease thought this buck was ugly, but I sure liked him

those last few are trophy's to me

Those are some definitely some ugly deer lol, but I like them.

2 yo.

I have never seen an ugly buck...some just look much better than the rest.

Spikes around the state are slow clapping right now.

I think he looks good... but here ya go!

While some of the pics of bucks might be genetically challenged on here some are just injury related antler growth.
This buck was normal looking little 8 point the year before this pic. Then last year grew this.

Then this year grew into a 5x5 with on kicker.

If that's a feed pen STX then it's the largest I've ever seen. How big you reckon it is?

I built it and it is only 10 panels. Not that big though really. Some corn will still hit outside the pen. We used to build them 96'x96' on several ranches I visited in the past. Those were big. Plenty of room for deer to run. Some even had 3 protein feeders per pen.

He may be ugly, but he doesn't know it...

That deer is awesome! ^^^^^^^

I gotta a fellow THFer coming to hunt with me this weekend for a cull. Man, I hope I can put him on something like that, but there aren't that many of them on camera. You never know what'll show up at any given feeder though.

Not sure what happened to this ol guy, I've had pics of him since 2012 and he's always had both sides. He was a monster last year...

jshouse- Wow, that's an OLD bruiser! Very cool, I assume you hunt way north or feed a lot of protein?

I didn't shoot him, a neighbor did, but I had him on camera for several years.

He was VERY old and VERY ugly:

north texas and no protein that I know of, but there is quite a bit of ag around us. he was gonna be my #1 this year until I saw him like that, hoping he gets right next year.

10 panels is what I went with, but yours looks much bigger. Optical illusion from those high quality photos you take

They're not ugly they're unique!

This is my nephew (and posse) with his ugly deer. Curled spike on one side, small spike on the other with a third curl below the small spike coming out of the side of his head. He needed to be out of the herd.

I almost used unique, but figured that would have drawn in a lot of the non typical deer. While I guess these "ugly" bucks could be considered non-typical, I was shooting for well, the ugly ones lol. I personally don't think they are ugly, I like the odd-ball racks myself.

when I met with the landowner & the TPWD biologist after we did our night time surveys, the biologist told us we needed to remove as many culls over the next several years that we could. The landowner being a relatively green (in several ways) she was confused as to what the biologist was referring to as a cull. To quote the biologist, "the ugly bucks! with nasty antlers, no G1s, mature but ugly!" I then showed her an example off the game cameras from the previous 3 years I had retrieved from the guy that had been on the place the previous 4-5 years (who only took decent but young bucks based on the pictures of his harvests). She (LO) said ohhhhhhh!!! The 2nd/3rd picture ZK-315 posted are one of those that I had game cam pictures 4 previous years. We have made a dent in them, but we will give it another shot this coming weekend and ZK might have another one to post here

Great thread to start. I love the ugly old deer and here is the ugliest one I ever shot. He was 5.5 when I shot him and had been like this 3 yrs running, just kept getting bigger. I had lots of pics of him but he was very elusive. The night I shot him was the first time I ever laid eyes on him. I was hunting a typical 10 with 3 kickers that evening. When this guy came out I had no hesitation in shooting him instead. When I saw him at the edge of the brush about 150 yards out, I thought, game on, let's go. 45 minutes later he was on the ground.


A lot of the goofy racked bucks are only a one year thing from some sort of injury. I never shot one unless it repeated from year to year. Most people see a goofy rack and think it immediately qualifies for a cull even though they have no history with the buck. A lot of outfitters are prime examples of this. Just something to think about.

good info

Creekrunner, that buck showed up at the feeder almost everyday in October but disappeared before Rifle season never to be seen again.

I agree RTP.
We have a 2 year history of this buck. He was basically a fork on the left and 2 MBs on the right last year with his first set of horns. He put on quite a bit more horn this year with 12 points, so although he's "ugly", we're real interested to see what he grows into. Nick name, Dully.

Antler injury to one side may effect the other sides growth also. It can direct blood flow to one side more than the other. I always have let bucks go if they have had antler damage for at least 2 years of antler growth after the bad year. Some injuries will correct after one year. I also look at the good side vs the bad side. History on a deer is important to me when I make a decision to shoot or wait another year. No history, he would have to have normal looking antlers and fall into the bottom of his age class to shoot on the first year.

That IS a cool buck. I would have shot him...

This buck was what I thought to be a really nice 3 yr old.



The next year that buck above was not seen but this buck was seen in the same area as the buck above. I aged him as a 4 yr old that season. He did not have an antler injury but a dislocated right rear hindquarter/leg. I know the injury effected his antler growth this year and his body condition also. I had an euro done of him. I am fairly certain this was the same buck in both pics.


I am sure he would have gotten injured more severely or killed during the rut with that leg injury and his age.

He was a really good looking 3yo.

that sucks, cool looking deer though

Yep he made a neat looking euro. Still not sure how the injury occurred. No cross fences or feed pens to have to jump into. Could have been a very late rut injury since those bucks were known to fight and kill each other. I found two bucks dead the first week of March than had been locked up from fighting. They had only been dead a couple of days.

that is a cool looking deer STX.

crazy how all the tines have that lean to the same side