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Cross bred
#7336702
11/03/18 08:53 PM
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Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 22,268
7mag
OP
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OP
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This one always gets intetesting. I hunted the Trans Pecos for many yrs.
Whitetails and mule deer could be found on certain ranches. So....do they cross breed or not? Game biologist says they can. But he says the fawns survival rate is almost non exsistent.
I tend to agree they do cross, but I also believe their survival rate is higher then what the bio told me.
"Laugh with many, but don't trust any"
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7336714
11/03/18 09:21 PM
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 11,658
GusWayne
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About 10 years ago my FIL hunted a ranch and a guy killed a whitetail with a mule deer rack.
The lease foreman swore it was a cross bred
I didn’t believe it until I saw the pic
So I am gonna say it’s possible
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7336721
11/03/18 09:33 PM
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Joined: Oct 2012
Posts: 25,241
Creekrunner
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I talked to a TPWD biologist too and he concurred it's possible. 'Only way to tell definitely if one is one is by a blood test. That can't be cheap.
...and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 1:28
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7336794
11/03/18 10:50 PM
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Joined: Dec 2017
Posts: 2,823
RattlesnakeDan
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A whitetail buck will breed a mule deer doe and they do on occasion, but a whitetail doe will not breed with a muley buck.
Just like Jesus, sometimes you gotta kill some hogs. Lone Star Mesquite . com RattleSnake Dan's Shredding Service
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7336820
11/03/18 11:13 PM
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 19,498
Erathkid
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I've seen a WT buck chasing mule deer doe.
Life is too short, as is. Don't chance it. Don't text and drive.
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: RattlesnakeDan]
#7337117
11/04/18 01:25 PM
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Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 7,759
snake oil
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A whitetail buck will breed a mule deer doe and they do on occasion, but a whitetail doe will not breed with a muley buck. This was what I was told also when we hunted in Childress...
"You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas".
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7337170
11/04/18 02:16 PM
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Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 1,239
QMC SW/EXW
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Whitetail and mulies will cross breed. I grew up in CO and they take a few every year out in the plains. Shot one myself in Yuma County on a spread an old family friend owned about 20 years ago. I was just meat hunting and found a small buck running with some mulie does and he seemed a little "off" when they busted out of a draw. His gait was different than the females. I popped him and when I walked up his rack was weird too, 3 points per side with one side being a normal type mule deer rack and the other going up like an elk rack with 3 points on it. His tail was flared like a whitetail but had a black tip on it and he lacked the black skull cap on a mulie.
I took the dressed carcass to the DOW office in Brush, CO and they took a few measurements and tissue samples. A few months later they got back to me and said the buck was a hybrid of the 2 species and that they see a few every year. They like to see them shot and really don't want them around. He ate just fine but was kind of a weird looking deer. I regret never taking a photo since it will probably be the only one I ever shoot.
Retired Navy Chief NJROTC Instructor for Tascosa High School
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7337200
11/04/18 02:51 PM
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Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 1,102
Bbear
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I wish I could remember the article I read but, one article stated that the whitetail buck is more aggressive than the mule deer buck, hence the main reason whitetails breed mule deer doe. An uncle of mine in Idaho hated whitetails. Said they would be the ruination of the mule deer herd.The whitetails stuck mainly in the valleys and the mule deer the mountains until the snow pushed them down.
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Pay it forward - Kids are the future.
Rifles are similar to boats and young women...there's no end to how much money you can pour into them without making them any more useful.
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: Bbear]
#7337363
11/04/18 07:55 PM
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 31,904
txtrophy85
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I wish I could remember the article I read but, one article stated that the whitetail buck is more aggressive than the mule deer buck, hence the main reason whitetails breed mule deer doe. An uncle of mine in Idaho hated whitetails. Said they would be the ruination of the mule deer herd.The whitetails stuck mainly in the valleys and the mule deer the mountains until the snow pushed them down. In areas where they overlap the mule deer takes precedence in my line of thinking
For it is not the quarry that we truly seek, but the adventure.
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7339280
11/06/18 07:28 AM
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Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 236
Herron
Woodsman
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Woodsman
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 236 |
We have both on our family land where I live and hunt. I have no doubt it's possible but I think it's rare and the results are usually poor. I've read some articles where the breeds were crossed in controlled settings and the resulting fawns had a much higher mortality rate. That said, I've seen some racks that looked like a WT on one side and a Muley on the other.
As for "aggressiveness," I've yet to see a Muley of any size yield to a WT. In my limited observations over the last 20 years or so, they typically give each other space but neither seems to be an aggressor. Admittedly, in most of these observed occasions, the Muley buck was the larger of the 2 species.
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Re: Cross bred
[Re: 7mag]
#7339305
11/06/18 11:24 AM
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Joined: Feb 2012
Posts: 1,755
eneat1119
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Here's a mulie my buddy shot down on our place off I-10 and the Pecos River. Had several mulie doe with him and the typical huge mule deer ears/body and white face.
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