salty

I hope he makes it.. poachers are scum

gzg38b

My bad. I missed that. I thought you were talking about neck shots being illegal.

SRBowman

What proof do you have that it was even shot? Could have been from fighting! And what is illegal about it?

MichaelT.

It isn't from fighting. And there are no fences in this area. This deer is a "local" deer meaning I was seeing it every morning and evening at my three feeders on my lease. The feeders are spread out over about 40 acres. The buck would move through that 40 acre area the 80 behind me, and the 80 beside me to the north and south west.The other guys in my lease are hunting the East and south East sections of the lease. He is also caught on my 3 cameras for almost all night, most nights of the week.

Just trust me when I say I know it is poaching. Plus I have several other shots of the wounds and can look at a lot of different aspects.

Also, This is a young buck that would not be in any serious fight, if we even had any serious fights between bucks in this area anyway.

You guys need to learn to trust peoples judgement about deer in their area. I cannot believe how many people have questioned the validity of it being a poaching incident. But, the local Game Wardens saw the pics and thought so too.

Rickmur

Where do some of these people come from. Geeeeezzzz.

ABarOfSoap

i still doubt it was from a poacher, unless he brang a stand, because if it was a bullet it went in the top of his neck and came out the side wich can only be done from up high, and he has horrible aim if it is a poacher

Booney160

It's frustrating how we as hunters can put hundreds of dollars and hours into hunting and then a poacher ruins it all for what? It looks to me like it's a gun or bow shot, I also don't think he had that bad of aim. The neck of a deer is not that large, he probably missed his mark by a matter of inches, which is what makes neck shots poor unethical shots. There is a very small margin of error.
Recently a friend of mine who I've grown to respect as a very good bowhunter told me how he had a doe come in to his bait pile. He decided to shoot her behind her ear. He made the shot and it all worked out, but the distance a deers head and neck can move from the time the arrow is released and the time it hit it's mark can be surprising. I don't think it was a good or smart shot, but just luck, and I lost a lot of respect for him as a bowhunter at that point.

MichaelT.

I say again, ABarOfSoap, it was a poacher. There are three 40 acre plots of land being hunted by two different leases, that butt up against my lease to the west, the side of the lease with thecameras. They have their own stands up, and hunt those stands very close to the property line. One shack stand they have was put up 61 feet from the property line overlooking 80 acres of our lease that was logged in august. The reason IT IS POACHING IS BECAUSE THE BUCK DOES NOT MEET THE STATE MINIMUM, FOR THREE POINTS ON ONE SIDE.

Man, what does it take????

mobow

Oh yeah, that buck has DEFINETLY been shot....It's amazing how resiliant them little buggers can be.

I hesitate to say, but I'm going to. Last weekend I shot a small doe w/ my bow. I hit her EXTREMELY high, and to make a very long story short, I stopped tracking because I was CONVINCED the deer was going to survive. I'm not going to go into all the evidence, but I was 100% certain the deer would be fine.

Fast forward to today. I was hunting the same area this afternoon and saw that doe, alive and well. Other than the obvious wound, she looked to be perfectly fine. And very relieved I was!!! More proof that sometimes we just don't kill them. I'm just glad that the buck in these photos, and the doe I've mentioned, are alive and well. Better that than lying in the woods rotting somewhere.

GregH

You've got to be kidding me!