Buck-Magnet, Let me start of by saying I completely understand the controversy and doubt surrounding this buck. If it was revealed tomorrow that the buck was poached or found and this whole thing is a hoax I would not be surprised, I would not put that past a lot of people, taking in consideration the money at stake. With the information given though, at this point I consider it a kill.

You are right that he would of never found the deer without the farmer and it was pure luck. I think our main disagreement stems from my opening question for this topic: When does a kill become a pickup? It seems no one has a definitive answer for that and I suppose it is open to interpretation as their are many variables.

It seems you feel that this “luck” factor is only a determination of ones effort and should be held in check accordingly. I feel all successful hunters are lucky, but that luck is usually a direct byproduct of hard work dedication and love for the sport and for the most part is dealt to us in a proportional ratio. But there are times when one hunters luck far exceeds the luck of another and I cannot fault him for that.. You are right in the fact that Zaft exceeded his fair ratio of luck on that day when the farmer found his deer but I feel he used an even more ridiculous amount of luck just to see a buck that caliber let alone get a shot at it. I cannot take that kill away from him just because he was incredibly lucky, Twice.

Those deer I found did not have an arrow in them and that is my point. There are many pass through fatal hits on deer that do not leave good blood trails or almost no blood trails at all. Many, many deer are found after a trail has been lost and the hunter is spot searching likely areas the deer may have gone. Ther is no arrow, no direct uninterrupted blood trail leading back the shot. Odds are it is the SAME deer but put these kills under scrutiny and there is a chance that you found someone else’s deer.

I lost a real good buck because of bad a decision or bad luck or both and I took the next day off and half a day off the next day, my dad even took a day off. We never found that brute but if someone else happened to find him on that second day and lead me to it I would have been the happiest and luckiest hunter in the world. I wouldn’t of even considered if it was a kill or not, that would have been my buck, period.

We as bowhunters get bad luck dealt to us regularly and are stoic in its presence. I don’t discount the factor luck plays in our sport and I will not penalize those who have more of it than me.

If lady luck finally gives me a whole countries worth of luck all on one chilly November mourning, I will accept it with a smile and with my head held high, after all I deserved it.<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle><img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>