I was hunting yesterday morning for about three hours. Didn't see a thing. As I was going to my truck I heard a gunshot. It was more like a pistol shot though. As I pulled on to the main road away from my hunting spot, I saw a Howard county cop standing in the middle of this guy's yard, looking down at something. I stopped my truck in the middle of the road and walked over to him asking "did you shoot a fox"? He said no, a deer and as I walked up, I saw a button buck in it's last throes of life. He said "do you think it's dead, I shot it in the head" and I touched it's eyeball with my boot and said "yes, it's just his nerves cycling off". He then asked me "do you want it"? and I said yes.

He walked over to his car and filled out a deer tag while I loaded the buck in the truck. The cop told me that he is always being called out by landowners for deer injured by cars and collapsing on their property; he hated to see them go to waste and thanked me for taking the animal. He wanted to know if I was local to the area, he actually wanted someone to call to take the deer that he was called out for to put down!!! Unfortunately, I am about thirty miles from that location, If I was local, I'd probably wouldn't ever have to hunt again to get meat!

I took the young buck home, deboned it and it's in the refrigerator waiting to be processed into jerky.

Kindest Regards,

-Will in Maryland