Rob,
I'm not sure if you want us to respond but I'm here and just saw this........
A couple things jump out at me right away.
1. The first series of pictures is, to my eyes, obviously "In the field" and appears to bemore than likelywhere the animal droppedand the kid has a rifle laying across it. You can also see blood sprayed in the snowin front ofthe buck's headon the same angle a bullet would have exited. IMO That is where the animal fell and died.
2. Multiple pictures with a rifle again "In the field" but only one cursory picture with a bow laying across theanimal back at the road?
3. Lack of "Bowhunting" clothes?
4. The trauma doesn't match a "spine shot below the skull". The eye popped out "When a girl dropped it on the railroad tracks?" You can clearly see the damage to the deer's eyeball in the first couple pictures BEFOREthe animal appears to have beenmoved.
Also now that I think of it, how would you possibly hit a deer's head off a railroad track with enough force to "Break his orbital bone" and knock his eye out, WITHOUT BUSTING THE RACK sticking out to the side protecting it? I can't even picture how that's possible if you were TRYING to knock his eye out.
I think the fact that the animal is laying there for everyone to see with multiple rifle pictureswhere it appears to have droppedsays all that you need to see?
AndIMO (I'm no doctor or veterinarian) but it would take something like the high velocity of a rifle bullet to do that damage....eye knocked out, blood all over the head and really oozing out the nose and mouth........would a spine shot below the skull cause that much bleeding inside the head?
If it were a joke I would have one picture with the rifle back at the road and 20 with the bow in the field, not the other way around.
I hate to say it, and I hate to see the contest maybe "Tainted" but I think it's pretty clear what happened here? I just hope that the pressure to produce for "Your team" or be recognized by your peers doesn't produce more of that.
I'm more than a little sad by what I am seeing here. And I hate that this will have the feel of a trial and I got all CSI for something that is supposed to be "Fun" but.........
I guess you can figure out my vote.
I'm sorry.
Team Captain, Team 29 "Reverse the Curse"