Went on a Sika deer hunt this week with Justin Matthews of Matthews taxidermy in Sonora Texas. Mulie Mike hooked me up with him as he has access to a unique ranch with free range Sika.

Free ranging sika's. These are neat deer. When they bust you they let out a shrill whistle. The bulls will bugle now and then to as they were in the rut.

After some hiking etc. we flushed this guy out of his bed. He stood and stared at us at about 200 yards and I was lucky enough to connect.

He's a great 4x4 and has a unique coat. Most of the deer we saw had the dark brown coats but his one still had this browing orange coat with the spots. A truly beautiful deer. i want to thank Justin for his hard work and Mike for his help in arranging everything.

Here are the money shots.





I know the Dybrowski have the spots. But this is the size of the normal Japanese Sika (smaller). Maybe a hybrid of some time or just a different coloration. But I consider myself lucky.

Congrats on a nice exotic.

Nice sika, congrats!

Great animal! Congrats

very nice...congrats

Nice sika Justin a great Guy I take all my taxidermy to him as will my meat processing

Nice sika stag. It's funny how they don't look all that impressive from a distance, but once you're up close, they have all those beautiful variations in their coat. My sika mount has very similar coloration to your sika, and is one of my favorite mounts. The quality of the venison also surprised me. On my hunt, I was primarily after axis, and I took a sika only because the rancher was letting them go at a ridiculously low price. When I cooked up my first sika steak, I wasn't expecting much, but I ended up liking it better than axis.

That"s a very nice Sika I'd have been just as happy with the darker coloration.

Congrats..

Nice Stag...

Very nice congrats to ya!

Congrats on the great sika stag! Japanese sika can and will show spots (if you do a simple google search on japanese sika and look at pictures from japanese parks, most actually have spots). The ones we have do have a tendancy to be dark, or melanistic, but it's not necessarily a true statement that all spotted sika have mainland (manchurian or dybowski) blood in them.

Txnrog,

Thanks for the information. I did read that somewhere that a lot of the Texas Sika are dark brown, maybe more than the native Japaneses deer.

Anyway, now I've got to go shoot a dark brown one. I love these exotic deer. Like a miniture elk. Such a cool animal.

Most Texas Sika have mixed DNA which results in a variety of colorings. The Kerma Sika from one small island off Japan can be almost black each island of Japan has a separate race along with Formosa plus more races on the Asian mainland. With all the crossings anything from black to spotted can often be found in the same herd so it comes down to personal choice.

Nice looking Sika.

I love them (though they don't play well with WT). Next time you go, take a cow elk call like a baby hoochie mama, or an open reed call. They will respond to calling, and it's a fun way to hunt them.

man id love to find one with spots on it like that

Congrats!!