I am here Stealthy.

Buck-Magnet , As far as Zaft not being 100% sure about if the deer was his, this is a situation that occurs very often in bow hunting. I have had gaps in blood trails, and lost blood trails and found my buck. Are you saying that this is a pickup because I could not, without 100% certainty, prove that it was the buck I shot. No one has ever questioned the validity of these type of kills when on average deer and they happen all the time. Another point is that Zaft had described the rack and its velvet before the farmer found it.
It didn’t lay in a field to die it was pushed there by Coyotes, maybe even dragged there. Oh, and Rompola has a long history of poaching big bucks.

I was under the impression he shot the buck in October so the amount of velvet may be odd but I don’t think impossible. If you are implying that he shot the buck off season then why didn’t he pull the velvet off? Why leave it on for the hole world to question?

Did Zaft take an iffy shot? Yes. But I have also and so have most of you. Does that preclude that any deer recovered from a low percentage shot is automatically a pickup? No

Am I 100% sure that the buck he found is the one he shot? No. But looking back over 20 yrs of bow hunting I can think of some of my own recoveries and recoveries of friends that could under scrutiny also be questioned and if pressed, could not prove 100% that the buck found was without a doubt the buck shot.

Did Zaft do everything he could to recover that deer? I don’t know. With my luck I would of shot that buck the day before I had to be at work, we just don’t know. If I had to go to work you can sure bet my old man would be out there for me. I don’t know if I could of convinced a friend to loose a days pay to look for a deer, so I can’t take away his deer because of that.

Is it possible that Zaft is in cohorts with the farmer and contrived this story after they found the dead buck and that’s why he did not get any help. I guess it is possible. But if I am going to be that cynical than I will except no kill unless it comes with a video of the shot and DNA proof that the blood on the arrow matches the deer that is found.

Zaft could be a complete lying poacher. Or he could be a regular guy like you and me that made a questionable decision in an adrenaline rushed once in a lifetime moment that triggered a snowball effect of bad luck and unanswerable questions to an honest, non-perfect kill of a world class buck.

Zaft may never be able to prove 100% that it was his buck and it was a kill, but until someone proves to me 100% that it wasn’t than I will give him the benefit of the doubt.