So you pull the trigger on Tuesday and you see the black birds of death circleing on Sunday. You know damn well what they found. You are going to take the head (cause there isnt anything else woth salvageing) to the taxi, put it on your wall and tell all these marvelous lies about it. Not I!

So in your eyes if you shot a dandy buck in November and find it while shed hunting in February all bets are off? If I cause his death with my car is that open for debate. My question is how many of these shots are marginal because the rack is huge? I hear it every week.......I had to shot threw six briar bushes but I think I hit him/her good!!

There's a whole boat load of hunting that goes into taking a shot at one. You took it although it didn't work out for the best. Nothing to hang your head about, he just made you work a lot harder for it.

Shed horns are shed horns .I have found & picked up some nice bucks dead in the woods,one even over looks my fire pit.
But I'm not putting them on the wall,thats for sure.

What were we betting on!!??

Who would debate you!!??

I can't answer that. Just going by what I see on this board there seems to be enough marginal shots being taken when antlers are not a factor. [&o]

I sure am glad that I don't hang out with the people that you do because I don't ever hear that, not even on this board!

I think you have to shoot a monster first and find him a week later to truly answer. I know I would at least euro mount the deer, but I would have no qualms mounting him either. You have already called everyone you know and told them you stuck a big boy, now when you find him 3 days later do you just not tell them the rest of the story. I ask this, what is different about the story that you are ashamed to tell besides it taking three days of tracking to find him. The real story is all that happened right up until the shot...after that most of mine end with followed blood 60 yards and picked him up. Now that is boring, but I like boring

I feel we're having a lot of scenarios being lumped together. If you hit a deer not exactly where you wished to, if you haven't you're day is coming, and you search continuously for the animal for three plusdays and are able to recover the animal, you earned it and should be proud of it. Now if you arrow a deer and give up, wait for the crows to fly and walk over to your downed animal, that's another story. You still can be proud of the animal, but tell the story like it happened. When your buddys come over don't say, that's my 08 bow kill. That's the deer you wounded in 08 and found days/weeks later. I feel today hunters are judged by the inches of antler on the wall and not for the type of hunter you are and the desire to shoot big deer has turned into pressure to shoot big deer. I know a lot of hunters that would rather be home on the couch than hunting that have harvested some awesome whitetails. The animal just deserves the true story no matter how large it was and how good it would make you look.

please Greg you sound like u r running for office.

What lies are there to tell TeeJay??? You shot the deer and unfortunantely you did not find it until 3 days later. You killed the deer and you owe it the respect of finding a cape and putting it on the wall. I don't know what the big deal of this is. I know a kid who just shot a 186" 12pt. Took him 4 days to find this deer. He looked on average 5-6 hours a day after school. Do you think he is not going to get this deer mounted? He is as happy as can be. So if you find your buck 3 days later are you just going to pick up the rack and not tag it and throw it in your garage? I'm guessing you've never been in this situation and I'm pretty dang sure you will retract your statement if this ever happens to you.

I believe the question is........how long can someone look before they can claim it? IMO think anything over a week is a done deal because at the point can really say your alleged shot did him in?