RE: When does a Kill become a Pickup?
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>Maybe that deer was found a mile away maybe it wasn't. But if it was just a couple hundred yds away does that change the situation?
Maybe Zafts shot was good enough to kill that buck in a reasonable time and distance and the coyotes pushed him out of his deathbed and forced a tough almost impossible recovery.<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>
Rack-attack - I tend to agree with Stealthycat. There are way too many unknowns about how the death of the "Zaft" buck occured to confirm it as a P&Y World Record. Given the circumstances of the recovery there is no way to confirm that Zaft's arrow wound was fatal. Maybe the coyotes did kill a weakened buck that might have otherwise recovered from a very poor hit. Deer frequently survive marginal hits from sharp broadheads.
I will also agree with others that if I were Zaft and I knew that this was the buck I had hit that I would claim it as my own. I am not disputing that it is his deer.
Just because he was able to tag it and claim it as his own does not mean that P&Y will accept the buck as meeting their entry guidelines. P&Y as an organization is concerned about more aspects of bowhunting than admitting every big buck to their record book. If that were the case they would have accepted Mike Beatty's huge nontypical as the new world record.