Yes, bad for the herd is right. With him living in the park, it looks like he gets a free ride. I doubt the DNR would ever open hunting there. The residents of Isle would revolt, as they love those deer for tourist attractions.
Chris,
From what I understand,both the buck and the doe have to carry the albino gene to produce albino offspring I’m sure there are others bucks that would kick this ones
My point was that, unless a brown buck carries the albino gene, this albino buck is the only one capable of producing albino offspring.

I’m a land owner and I feel I have the right to shoot whatever buck comes along if I choose. But,if I tell my fellow hunters not to shoot the little bucks because of some QDM plan I have, then it wouldn’t be right for me to turn around and shoot one. It would be contradictory to my plan and just not right.
For me to go and shoot two bucks, only to decide I don’t want them, would be poor hunting ethics on my part. And then to decide to pawn (almost forcing) those deer off on the other hunters in my party, just so I get yet another chance at shooting a bigger buck, is absurd.
Part of the hunting experience is the comradery we hunters share at deer camp. If I acted like the land owner you describe, I have a feeling I may be hunting alone the following year.
The guys in my deer camp; help mow the trails and plant the food plots in summer, help cut my firewood in the fall, and bring food or money for food when deer camp opens. These guys are awesome and I feel they do more than their share be able to hunt my land. I make sure I thank them all too! What I’m trying to say is, I need those guys as much as they need me. So I make every attempt not to urine any of them off.
The guy sounds like a total jerk. Not much you can do but suck it up if you plan to keep hunting there. Personally, I would leave. The guy is just going to do the same thing next year and the year after that and so on.

Your right about the rarity. Melanistic deer are rarer than albinos for sure. Thanks for sharing those pics!

It’s too bad the shooter of that buck didn’t follow up on his shot. Things will turn around for you so don’t give up!

Man, that’s an awesome video! What a dandy buck! Truly amazing, I never seen a buck in action like that.

Grifter,
Thanks for the compliment! When you live in a state, where it’s legal to harvest albino deer, a person shouldn’t look at any albino as a pet. You would be setting yourself up for a big heartache when it gets harvested. If an upcoming young hunter were to harvest an albino deer, they would be hunters for life and that’s a good thing. Introducing hunting to the younger generation will insure that the sport will thrive for years to come. Besides, Mn. deer hunters have enough restrictions the way it is.
I just consider myself lucky to have these deer visiting my backyard for so long.
Again,thanks ever so much for those compliments!

Tim

Chowdski,
I know which 8 pointer your talking about. Sorry, but somebody already bagged him and sold it the owner of “Trail-Side Liquors.” It’s that off sale liquor store just south of the NAPA auto parts on Hwy. 169 in Onamia. They did a full body mount and put him in a glass case.

Big G,
Your absolutely right about the albino population growing. The Father Hennipen state park now has 5 albinos that reside there. For sure one of the five is a big bodied buck and three does. The fifth albino was born this spring(2008) so I don’t know the sex.
The best part of the whole thing is that the albinos in the park are automatically protected from hunting by living there. The good thing for hunters is these albinos have offspring outside the park and establish their home ranges there. In time,they will spread out, giving hunters more opportunities to harvest one.
I chose not to harvest the albino twins that visit my home but if someone else does, congratulations from me would be in order. As long as the deer are harvested legally,I would always respect my fellow hunters right to do so.
I have photos of the big buck in the park. If you would like to see them,I’ll start another post.

Chris,
I tease my wife about that same flavor! I’ve wanted to harvest an albino deer most of my life. Now that the albino twins have been visiting my backyard for so long, they won’t even run away any more! I couldn’t shoot one.

Bingo Tom! Father Hennepin State Park is were I took the photo of four albinos. You probably knew that from the brown gate in the photo. It’s so cool to go there and watch the deer. To have a new albino fawn running around the park is great!

Thanks for putting up the link again Steve. I made the feeder out of metal and gas welded it together. The fact that it holds exactly 50# of corn was just an accident. Steve , aren’t you the guy that writes all those informative articles in the Mille Lacs Messenger?

That would be really cool to come across! Too bad they didn’t cape the bucks out for mounting. Maybe too excited!

I live in Wahkon Minnesota. It’s located on the south shore of Mille Lacs Lake in the central part of the state. After two years of the twins visiting my back yard, I’ve compiled quite a few photos and about 6 hours of video tape.
Besides the twin albinos, I know of 7 others that live within a few miles of my home!
According to http://www.backwoodswisconsin.com, the odds of seeing three albino deer at the same time is 1 in 79 billion! Check out this photo of four. What do you think the odds of this are?
Thanks for the welcome to this site! I’m happy to be here!

Thanks for voting on my Browning feeder. If anyone is interested, the crappies are starting to bite fairly well. I was out this morning in Wahkon Bay and caught five nice ones. The smallest was 12 inches and the biggest was 15 inches which is a personal best for me. Normally Isle Bay is the crappie hole but I’ve seen really nice ones come out of Wahkon this year. From 5-7 feet deep between Walleye Dundee’s Resort and the first island is were to fish.I used a red glow jig with a crappie minnow and fished about two feet below the ice. Good Luck and here’s a photo of the fish I caught this morning.

Tim

Thanks for your vote! It is nice to see the albinos but as far seeing them protected against hunting, that’s another story.
There is a petition at the Capital to outlaw the hunting of albino deer in Mille Lacs County. I don’t see the need for it.
There is a small population of albino whitetails already living in the Father Hennipen State Park in Isle Mn. The park rules of no hunting protects them enough. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t see other albinos in the Isle/Wahkon area like the ones that come to my house.

Not only are the albinos nice for my grand daughter to see, I think it would be nice for a young hunter to be able to harvest one if given the chance.

Hunters today are faced with enough restrictions. The protection of the State Park rules should be enough for the people that want them protected. When one of those albinos or it’s offspring wanders out of bounds, some lucky hunter gets the deer of a lifetime. That’s the way it is now, and that’s the way it should stay.

Sorry but one more thing, congrats to Mary Rakotz on harvesting that 6 point albino buck in Mille Lacs County during the 2007 gun season. I’m sorry to hear you had to disconnect your phone because of all the threats. It should of been your time to shine and be noticed in a positive way.

It really takes a brainless person to threaten a deer
hunter. Especially a hunter thats a good shot.

Tim

I see my photos of the albino twins get around the web!The photos were taken in my back yard in Wahkon Mn. The albino twins have been coming to my back yard since 2006. Back then they were only 6 months old. These photos were taken January 18, 2008. It’s hard to believe the twins are still coming to my feeder today!

I made the feeder and entered it at http://www.browning.com. They have an online contest called “Show Us Your Buck Mark”.The feeder is made out of metal,has a cover on the top antler for filling, and holds 50# of corn. The corn gravity feeds down to the tray at the bottom.You can even vote on it! (hint,hint)
The twins were featured on TV.”On The Road” with Jason Davis
did a segment on the twins from my home. The feeder is only 40 feet from my patio door so the film crew was able to get some great footage. You can go to http://kstp.com/article/stories/S348404.shtml?cat=1&v=1. if you’d like to see the TV segment.

Although I’d probably be the first hunter to ever harvest two albinos at one time, the look on my grand daughters face when she sees the twins keeps me from doing so. This may be hard for the younger hunters to understand but for the hunters with children or grand children, I think they know where I’m coming from.

Those babies are lucky too! By passing them up on opening day 2007,I was rewarded with a 10 point 210# buck! Good albinos. Gooood albinos!

Tim