The Elf Buck

Payton McCullough, of Franklin, killed this unique Heard County buck on Dec. 7. The buck had long hooves, a condition called foundering, which is a painful condition of hoofed animals in which inflammation and damage occur to the lamina (the tissue that connects the bone to the hoof wall).

Ten-year-old Payton McCullough, of Franklin, had no idea that her first deer harvest would be so special. Aside from sporting a beautiful 9-point rack, her buck also had abnormally long hooves that curved upward like elf shoes. In fact, her dad Chad had many trail camera videos and pictures of the unique buck that he had nicknamed “the elf buck.”

This is not the first time that the Heard County farm, which has been in the McCullough family for more than 100 years, has produced a buck of recognition. In the early 80s, Payton’s grandfather Keith McCullough killed a Boone & Crockett that was featured on the front cover of Georgia’s Greatest Whitetails, an excellent book written by Duncan Dobie in the mid-80s.

Keith McCullough killed a Boone & Crockett buck on the Heard County farm in 1982. Keith is pictured on the right, and on the left is his cousin Robert Alford.

“A couple of weeks before Payton killed this buck, we were hunting, and a little 3-point stepped out,” said Chad. “I told her that she could shoot him for her first deer, but she said that she wanted to wait for something bigger.”

On Dec. 7, the father-daughter hunting duo found themselves in the deer woods again situated in a two-man ladder stand overlooking a field surrounded by colorful hardwood trees. Around 3:30, four does entered the field and fed around for a while. Then, Chad spotted a buck on the wood line.

“When I told Payton that it was an 8-point (a ninth kicker point on the right base couldn’t be seen from the stand), she really got excited and started breathing heavier,” Chad laughed. “He walked out into the field but stood facing us for 15 or 20 minutes. I had to keep whispering to her that he wasn’t going anywhere and to just be patient.”

Payton’s patience paid off at last when the buck turned broadside at 70 yards, presenting her with an ethical shot opportunity. Capturing the moment of impact on camera, Chad knew the buck was hit well as it hobbled out of the field.

“The celebration began right after the shot,” Chad said. “Payton wanted to call and Facetime everyone she knew and was ready to go get her buck right then, but I explained to her that we had to give it a little time before rushing in after him, just in case.”

Chad called his dad, aunt and uncle to be a part of the recovery. The well-placed 7mm-08 bullet made tracking the buck easy, and it wasn’t until they walked up to the deer that they realized it was “the elf buck” that they had on their trail camera. All four hooves were affected by the odd condition.

Charlie Killmaster, Georgia state deer biologist, said, “This is just like foundering in goats, but I only see maybe one whitetail case a year in Georgia.”

Foundering is a painful condition of hoofed animals in which inflammation and damage occur to the lamina (the tissue that connects the bone to the hoof wall). The weakened lamina causes the bone (coffin bone) of the foot to pull away from the hoof wall, creating the hoof abnormalities.

“The most common reason for foundering or laminitis in a deer is from a sudden shift in diet from high fiber to high carbohydrates,” explained Killmaster. “If a deer starts eating only corn, then this problem can happen, but most deer don’t stop foraging even if there is easy access to corn all the time. I suspect, and this is just my opinion, that the deer that do founder may have an illness keeping them off their feet and so they bed down near corn feeders and quit grazing. It can become a vicious cycle from there.”

The process of bizarre hoof growth does not happen overnight; it takes months to form the elf-shoe appearance like Payton’s buck had.

Killmaster reassured, “Foundering in deer is not a population concern at all. It is just a rare issue that affects some individuals every once in a while.”

Chad plans to have his daughter’s special buck shoulder mounted by Baskins Taxidermy Studio in Carroll County (the same taxidermist who mounted Chad’s father’s Boone & Crockett over 40 years ago). “We are definitely going to incorporate the hooves in the mount, like doing a gun rack out of them underneath or something like that.”

As for Payton, well, she’s not finished hunting this season. She confidently stated, “We still have a lot of does that need thinning.”

After making a perfect shot on an awesome buck, that sharp-shooting girl should not have any problems taking down some does!