I got some bad news yesterday when i arrived at the farm. My wifes cousin and father in law were working in the woods and stumbled upon one of the big 8 pointers that we watched last saturday evening while scouting. I dont have any pics of the buck but they did recover the horns. This buck was shot with a crabon arrow and what appears to be a Rocky broadhead. We know its not from our group but has to be one of the neighbors or from across the river. The arrow is only around 26-27 inches long and was still inplace in the buck. The buck was shot in the rear end and looks as if it took out the liver. Who ever it was was shooting at flag and had no idea what they were doing and had a short draw length. The deer appears to have laid there for several days. What a shame to see a great buck go to waste. This could have been a poaching attempt or just a bad shot. I will see if I can get pics of the rack this weekend. My cousins son has the rack in his possesion at the moment.

That sucks!! Hopefully it wasn'ta poacher. Keep your head up and go get his brother!!

Remember, what goes around comes around. I would ask my neighbors if anyone lost a buck. That would be a respectable thing to do, regardless of shot placement.

That's too bad to see a nice deer wasted. I would ask around and tell folks about the shot placement and you hope whoever made the shot is sick to their stomach. That's the kind of stuff that gives bowhunting a bad name. Foolish. Sorry to hear. Go get his bigger brother.

Bummer. James may be right. If you let it be known that you recovered the antlers the shooter might come forward. You could arrange for him to pick them up from the local game warden and explain where he was hunting when he shot the deer.

Small draw length, arrow still in deer... probably a woman getting started with her hubby somewhere splat thatdeer and that buck ran like hell.

Why in the world would you think of reporting someone to the game warden for a legally shot animal?? Look at it this way, if possible, at least they didnt trespass all over his land to find the deer. So the animal ran onto his land and died. How come so many people on this board act like they are some perfect god like hunter. What if it was a very young boy who shot that deer, and is just tore up that his dad would not let him track it onto someone elses property. Some people on here just need to get a grip.

I would ask the nieghbors, it very well could be a young kid that didn't know any better and is probably tore up over the fact he wounded a buck and lost it........we've all been there and know the feeling of a lost animal. It sucks that it died that way but it is the right thing to do if it was not shot on your land.

Well we asked around and noone on our side of the river had shot one. So were guessing it came from across the river. Oh well. It happens. I wasnt able to get pics of the horns, cousins son is making a set of ratlin horns out of the rack. I guess he green scored the horns at 146 roughly.

Sorry about the waste of a nice deer. One thing I observe is a 26-27 inch arrow may not be a short draw person. I say this because my draw length is 29" and my arrows are 27.25". If the rest is sitting back in the sight window, you can easily do this!