One of the hunters on my place shot a nubbin buck with no antler protruding. Is an antlerless tag used or a buck tag? This occurred during the general hunting season and am just wondering. I would think an antlerless tag is ok but not sure and the hunter used a buck tag.

a nubblen, while it may have de cahona's tis still antlerless. tis guessing hunter took it for a doe. dont think he would get inta trouble for using a buck tag. tis good question

If no antler is protruding through the skin it's an antlerless, even if you can see and feel bumps. If anything sticks through the skin at all, it's a buck.

so would a nubbin be considered protruding

He did the right thing. Tagged as a buck.

looks like he taged it wrong.

Nope!!! And if he had gotten checked, a ticket could have been issued for illegally tagged deer.

For tagging a buck as a buck?

The tags are buck or antlerless. Think about that. They aren't buck and doe tags. They aren't antlered and antlerless. They're buck and antlerless.

Antlerless is exactly what it means, if it doesn't have antlers, it is an antlerless tag, no matter what kind of hardware he has. Tagging it with a buck tag is incorrect. Likewise shooting a buck with no antlers coming through the skin is legal in antlerless only season, and you would tag it as antlerless. The TPWD description is surprisingly clear on this issue.

A deer such as he described is an antlerless buck. Perhaps use of either tag would be okay.

The only acceptable tags would be antlerless or buck/antlerless tag. A buck tag alone would be incorrect. Not sure what is unclear about that.

What's unclear is that the deer is a buck. Are you a TPWD game-warden?

Nope but I shot a nubbing buck two years ago and consulted one on how to tag it. Although again it states very clearly that a deer with no protruding antlers should be tagged as antlerless, regardless of the sex: don't take my word for it though, call your GW if you think I'm wrong.

Lets flip this around another way, how would you tag a doe with antlers? It isn't a buck so you couldn't possibly you a buck tag on it right?

You should really read the book. Start with page 64. It states a "buck deer" is a deer with a hardened antler protruding through the skin. A "spike buck deer" is a BUCK with no antler having no more than one point. ALL OTHER DEER ARE ANTLERLESS DEER.
All I am saying, a picky GW could make it hard on ya for not tagging it right. I hear stories like this all the time.

He taggd it wrong..He should have use the antlerless tag..IF he used the tag for either buck/antlerless, then he would have had to make sure the log in the back is filled out correctly and the box antlerless checked that matches the tag..

Well, if a GW and the book say that, then I'm good.

I didn't think we had buck tags. I thought they said buck or antlerless and antlerless only. So it didn't matter which tag he used he just needs to log it correctly, antlerless. I take it he used his buck or antlerless tag which is fine, as long as he logged it as an antlerless, but a waste of an opportunity at taking a buck later.

It's a buck. The definition of "buck deer" never mentions what sex the deer is. Only whether or not it has antlers.

Correct, sex has nothing to do with tagging requirements.

Thank you!!!
This is what I was getting at.
In this case, if he used a either sex tag, filled the back out as a buck, got checked, more than likely the GW would make him correct it, changing it from buck to antlerless. But there are some GW's out there, whether they just had a bad day or if they are just an all around goober, might just give out a citation for tagging it incorrectly. He now has burned a either sex tag for no reason at all.

yagh, tis not about de cahonas but de rack i got cheap posts. Edit: price of posten must of went up try again