Deer stalking: CIC records UK’s largest antlered doe on Islay

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Deer stalker bags largest antlered doe on Islay

The unusual antlered roe deer was identified as female by its skull dimensions and its anal tush.

By Will Finch

Friday, 07 October 2011

Deer stalking: The CIC has recorded the UK’s largest antlered doe. It was shot on the last day of the 2009 roe doe season by Donald James McPhee, the headstalker on Dunlossit estate, on the Inner Hebridean Isle of Islay.

Deer stalking.
Though better known for its red deer, Dunlossit has produced a number of notable roe trophies and is home to a group of unusual piebald roe.

Donald James observed the antlered doe for the first time the day before it was shot and identified it by its anal tush as a female roe.

He said: “I was concerned that I would not be able to find the deer on the last day of the season so I went back to find it the following day. I found it in an area of scrub woodland as the light fell and managed to stalk it successfully. I knew it must be a rarity and after checking various records found nothing to match the antlers’ development.”

“At that point I took the whole carcase to Drew Bain, the CIC UK trophy commission technical advisor, who has one of the most important trophy collections in the country.”

Drew Bain commented: “I have never seen such antler development in a doe. The skull dimensions were those of a female and the animal was mature. The weight of the upper skull was 305g and the length of the antlers was 19 and 20cm, the right antler being the most unusual. Both antlers were fully hardened and look to have been previously cast. The animal was not a perruque, nor can the head be described as mossed.”

The head cannot be described as a perruque or mossed head, but it weighed 305g and had 20cm antlers.