GUILDERLAND — “A hunter recently paid a penalty for taking a deer out of season on Christmas Day in Guilderland,” said a Wednesday press release from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

The penalty was $500.

The release said events unfolded this way: On hearing a complaint of a single shot from what sounded like a muzzleloader, Environmental Conservation Officer Kyle Bevis spoke to the homeowner who claimed he’d heard no gunshots on Christmas morning.

Bevis inquired further, asking the man to see the barn on his property. The homeowner obliged and Bevis checked the inside of the barn without finding anything suspicious. However, on his way out, he noticed a spike buck tucked under the bed of one of the old pickup trucks parked outside the barn, in an attempt to conceal it.

A spike buck is a male deer typically in its second year with unbranched antlers on both sides. Generally, the older a deer is, the larger and more branched its antlers will be.

When Bevis confronted the homeowner with his discovery, he admitted to shooting the buck with a muzzleloader earlier that day, despite knowing the season was closed.

Bevis ticketed the hunter and donated the deer to a local processor for the Venison Donation Coalition.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer