The other morning I took a nice 6 point. To my amazement, when I recovered the deer, it had another set of holes in it!

The deer had been shot previously just forward of the shoulder blade, approximately 5-6" under the top of his back. The shot was a clean pass through and did not appear to be from an elevated stand as the shot entered and exited the deer at about the same level. It appears as though the shot was forward and above the lungs, yet well below the spine and arteries.

The arrow did not even appear to be broadhead tipped! [>:][] Both holes are small, not showing any evidence of blades. One side of the deer has some cut hairs - but they appear to be relatively ragged - not like they were cut clean by a blade. Both holes are black scabbs - not scar tissue or skinned over, so I feel that the injury came from earlier this season, probably within the last couple weeks.

All this aside, the deer appears to be very healthy. I did not notice any impedence to natural, normal deer movement before I made my shot. The buck went about 180# live weight and has a large neck. I noticed he had a strong scent about him when I recovered him - typical breeder buck smell from an animal that' s been actively scraping.

I haven' t started butchering him yet, but even the meat seems to have a particularly gamey smell to it. Is it possible that the meat is not quite right due to some blood poisoning or other??? I have not noticed any evidence of infection, but I haven' t skinned him yet either.