In the area I hunt in Mason county, we have an abundance of what they call “moss bucks”. These bucks are sterile and have a ball sack the size of a native pecan. Their horns grow either into a balled up mass or into spikes sometimes with several jutting out of the bone mass. They often never lose their velvet or if they do it’s late in December or January. From what I have reasoned is it’s from them eating a lichen or moss that grows on the rocks around the mountain. I would like to know which lichen or moss it is so I can avoid it. lol

I’m killed dozens out side of castell(Eastern Mason) over the years. The best meat, only deer I’ve ever seen in extreme drought still have a ton of fat come Late Dec.

Thank you guys. At 70 I'm still not too old to learn something!

Interesting, never heard of such

Hang on. You think it’s from eating a lichen or moss? That’s a new to me theory. I would love to know more. Seriously.

Same thing happened on a ranch i hunted in south Texas. They contributed it to some toxic weed that only grew every so often under certain conditions. Some of the bucks on the property had been ear tagged and one was shot that only had thick 4" nubs. The year before he was a 150 class deer. They stopped shooting the other bucks that had the same nubbs. Another tagged buck also had nubbs and was killed the following year as a 160 class deer.


This ranch record was a 197" who was tagged as a yearling, he was a spike...... all lf native deer

Place I hunt is northeast of Art towards Ponotoc. So it sounds like it's somewhat unique to that area.

I hunt in Mason County, too, and have been told this is due to deer eating a lichen off of rocks.

Have you considered testicular damage from barbed wire fence?

I had an extreme a typical who stayed in velvet.

I talked with Dr. Kroll's daughter and her prognosis was testicular damage from barbed wire.

She said it is more common than folks think.

Never seen this before.

Never heard/seen one before now

Yep. Hunted Castell area of Llano Co for 8 years. We called them "Cactus Bucks," took a number of them. They can get really funky. They effectively get chemically castrated over time, altering their hormone release for antlers. But, because they don't rut or fight they get fat like a big fed up steer. And, their coats are the thickest softest you'll ever run into.

Not sure what causes it but we killed several on the Slator Ranch in SW llano county back in the 90’s, he always said it was from a weed.

We had a nice young fallow that got shed one year, then turn into this the next. Biologist told us he likley injured his nuts.

We hunted close to Castel in Loyal Valley, off House Mountain Rd. Here are a couple we took.

Learned something new today.

100% not from external damage, I’ve killed probably 20 myself. Both nuts are there just tiny

Per biologist is moss/lichen from granite rocks

New to me. Learn something every day.

I forgot you were just down the road. Only time I have ever hand pulled a back strap out was in a fat 8plus year old stag. Impressively tender

Man these things are a pain to skin. Most normal bucks and Doe, I can just pull the skin right off. Not these. I had to basically cut the hide completely away. I didn't notice if it was soft, but it was thick that's for sure.

If we have any wildlife biologist here looking for a research project for their master's thesis, this would be a great subject. I would certainly be willing to help with field surveys on our place.