Hate to see this...
 

I found matched sheds yesterday, unfortunately they were still attached to the skull. Pretty well eaten so I am guessing was shot/lost during the November gun season. I know it is arrogant, but after years of experience and all the great tips on this site, when seeing a waste like this, do you ever think, "If I would have been there, they would have found this buck." I just cant help but think, he was shot at by someone with a slug, didnt go down immediatley, and they never even bothered to look.I just hear TOO MANY people describe a track job to me and it sometimes blows my mind how easily they give up. I know, thismay have been a bow hit with an impossible blood trail that 99% would have never found, but you know what I am getting at. Anyway, 13 pointer, 11 inch G2s, 16 inside, very massive. I aged him, and am still scratching my head, I keep getting 2.5 years, but he seems way to massive to not be at least 3.5. Maybe he just liked soft food!

RE: Hate to see this...
 

Great looking skull - too bad the owner never recovered him, if that is indeed what happened. Animals do die for other reasons so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

That will make a great european mount!!!

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What a buck!

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Man that stinks!! I sure hope that the person who shot it gave 110% on the recovery attempt, but I know what you mean about the feelings you have. I live in NE Ohio, flat lands with small woodlots and creeks and fencrows. During the weel lond slug law we get alot, and I mean about 90% of the guys, who do what we call heater hunting. just drive around chasing deer with trucks, ATV's, even dirt bikes until they surround them with 20 guys or take potshots from the vehicles or on the road. Trust me, I am not exxagerating one bit. It is rediculous. Anyhow, you wouldn't believe how many deer are found dead or seriously wounded after that week because some of these guys just give up if they don't find them right away. They just head for another section. It is sad. A few years ago a friend called and told me that about 10 guys were getting ready to run my uncles 8 acre woods. I am the only one with permission to hunt it and am in control of it since me Uncle lives out of state now. By the time I got there they were gone, but their tracks were everywhere in the snow. I went in the woods and found spent sheels so I knew they shot. I found a dead fawn from that year laying there, and their tracks were all around it. They just shot at it, and then saw how little it was and left it lay. Man was I HOT!! About 10 years ago a freind of mine got a call from a farmer he knew the day after gun law ended. Hr said that he saw some guys stop on the road infront of his farm and start blasting at some deer running into his corn field. He went out and started yelling at them and they took off. Luckily his wife got some vidoe of them driving away and they did get a ticket. But the next day while he was running corn he found a dead doe and fawn, and another fawn with both front legs shot off at the elbows. He asked us to come out and kill it. My buddy put an arrow in its chest and then his girlfriend sat down and held its head and cried while it died. Let me tell you something, there were 3 hardcore bowhunters there that have hunted all their life, and believe me, not one of us had dry eyes. It is really sad. So believe me, it happens everywhere. At least you find it and can do some good with it.
On another note, I see that you are a Vikes fan. I am a huge fan too, bleed purple. Looks like Childress isn't gonna keep Culpepper around. I don't know about that man. I know he tore his knee up, but all I have heard and read, it sould like he is really rehabbing hard and tryoing to come back better than befor. I know his season this past year was really bad, but man the year before he would have been the MVP if Manning wouldn't have had the year he had. We will see what happens. Johnson is a great game manager, but as a starter all year, I just don't know. He just isn't the mobile threat taht Culpepper is. At least we have alot of cap room to play with. Hopefully we can get the free agents and draft choices we need. I just want them to win the SB before I die, then my life will be complete. I am 41 now and have pics of me when I was like 5 or 6 with all my Vikes gear on with my Cral Eller and Alan Page posters in the background. I am a lifer!!:DLets hope for the best!!

RE: Hate to see this...
 

thats a trophy for sure, it is too bad that it went to waste...

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Maybe I am looking at this in the wrong direction. I never call it a waste when I see this happen.

I have have had it happen once with a bow shot doe and I was very determined to find the deer. I never found the deer, and I felt horrible because I made a poor shot. I was real down on loosing the deer, as it would have fed myself and my college roommates for plenty of tasty dinners.

My Dad gave me this way of looking at the situation:
There are plenty of other forest game and critters in the woods that it made that tasty dinner for. Although it wasn't on my dinner plate, it still served a purpose of feeding.

RE: Hate to see this...
 

Unless I have a body that's showing obvious bullet or arrow wounds, Iwould assume this animal was hit by a car or was mortally wounded in a fight with another buck. Or it was weakened so badly during the rut that the cold weather did it in. Like Hazcon said, there are many other reasons that animals die.

What groupalways readily assumes any animal found dead in the woods was shot and wounded by huntersand uses itto show how 'cruel and heartless' we are? Who are you acting like when you leap to such conclusions yourself?

Smarten up a little, fellers.

RE: Hate to see this...
 

That Deer has got to be 4 1/2 with that kind of mass and sticker points. No way it's a 2 1/2.

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i just read an article that stated more bucks die from post-rut mortality than any other natural cause death.

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Arthur,
The reason I assumed he was shot was because he wasover amile from the nearest road, and his left, back hip had a funny break/hole in it, not what a coyote could have done by just chewing bones. You are right though, I dont know for sure, just an educated guess.

The point I was making is that it irritates metalking toother hunters (bow and gun) every year who mention that theyhit a deer or "lobbed one" at it and either didnt go check for blood or only found a little bitand just assumed they nicked it and felt there was no reason to continue on the trail. Years of experience tells me that you can shoot a deer and find just a few drops of blood and not look like anything fatal, yet the deer could be laying dead just over the next rise. Deer drives are legal in MN, and unfortunately I know groups that may follow blood for a little ways, but because they have other people in the group waiting on them to do the next drive, they dont follow too far or spend much time if it isnt much of a trail. Unfortunately, I think this deer may be a result of that.