I was hunting on a power line in mid December at my farm and noticed a doe that stopped and stared into some planted pines that were on one side of the easement. She stared there for maybe five minutes, appearing somewhat cautious, if not respectful of what she saw. Later a young 7-pointer came along, stopped at the same spot and stared for about the same time, leaving briefly, then coming back again to stare into the pines. This activity made me curious, of course, as I suspected that maybe the bull of the woods was bedded down in that spot, and maybe he would eventually walk out.
After I was through hunting for the day, I walked up to the spot where the deer had been peering. I was shocked to see a nice mature 10-pointer dead. It had been cold over the past several days, but I suspected it had been dead for about a week. The big bullet hole in its shoulder left no doubt what happened to the buck. I was disgusted, as I have caught the brother of an adjoining landowner hunting my property while sitting on the line between us (he even admitted he did that), and since this power line goes through my farm and into his, maybe 125 yards from where I found the deer, you can imagine what I suspected. I went home to go to church, planning to come back that afternoon to cut off the antlers.
When I came back, I walked towards the dead deer, but then looked around a bit and was stunned to see another dead buck about a dozen yards back further in the pines. This one was an 8-pointer, dead the same period as before, and had a big bullet hole in its shoulder, too. I was then furious! The first deer theoretically could have been shot anywhere and ultimately found its way to the spot where it was found. But the chances of that happening twice was more than the odds would bear. Clearly I now knew that someone had been looking down my powerline, spotted these two bucks in rut, and shot them both. Then the deer ran the short distance into the planted pines, and since the shooter didn' t have the nerve to wander around my farm looking for the wounded animals, never pursued them at all.
The fellow that owns the adjoining property could not be a nicer fellow. I think the world of him. He doesn' t even deer hunt. But you can imagine who I suspected was the culprit. The brother denied that he did it, and maybe he' s telling the truth, but it' s still a situation that makes me sick, especially since I knew this 10-pointer was in this vacinity (found his shed in 2002) and was soon to be a real trophy.
Anyway, here are the antlers. Watch out for poachers!

Here' s a link to a picture of the antlers:

http://home.mchsi.com/~vsullivan3/ws...ID-613266.html