I think it does have some melanistic traits. They can vary from all black to a black/gray deer with more traditional white markings.

I have personally been hunting this farm for 17 years now and I have never seen a deer this color or even remotely close to this color. I made a conscious effort this year to not run trail cams on this property. I decided I wanted to return the element of surprise back into my hunting ... boy was I surprised! This was just one very cool deer. I do know a neighbor who was running cameras and knew of the deer, I found out the other day. I am going to hit him up to see if I can get a copy of his trail cam photos of the deer for the young man.

I do know that the young man's dad is going to do one of two things. Either a shoulder mount and have the balance of the hide tanned, or do a euro mount and have the entire hide tanned. Either way not one square inch of the hide is going to be discarded.