Hey man what ever floats your boat.

If the same thing happened to me

I wouldn't mount him because I made a bad shot, I wasted the animal, and I couldn't find him and then a farmer found it , I just wouldn't want it on the wall, it wouldn't be earned to me.

There's a 140 ish ten point rack sitting in the enclosed porch at the guys house where I started bow hunting. I made a bad shot on it lost the blood in the rain and he found it in the swamp. As soon as I saw it I knew it was the one I shot, he told me to take it. I didn't want it.

1 Question, with all the great dogs and Deer Search in NY, did you bother calling them?

I did not Rob...

I did not know there was a dog tracking program in NY..
It was a guided hunt. The guide is the farmer

What happened with the shot I didn't see the first post, a couple weeks ago.

I apparently made a bad rifle shot on a deer in TX on a trip a few years ago. we never found it while i was there, but the skeleton was found by a neighbor a few weeks later. the outfitter sent it to me and i used the cape from a buck i had just killed in NY to have it mounted. after it was mounted I kept it for a few months but it just didnt feel like it was my deer, so i sent the mount back to the ranch and told them they deserved it more than i did, after all the hard work they did to put me on that deer. point is, i was really bummed id lost that buck but i was very happy to have "closure" afterwards,however after some soul searching i realized, since i was not the one who recovered the buck i really couldnt claim him. thats the way i see it but its a personal desision i guess.

Take it easy on the guy for cripes sake. It was found 100 yards from where they had last blood. Its not like the deer was alive for days before it died. His shot was a fatal one obviously they just didn't have enough to find him. It's not his fault the guide didnt have a dog to help with the last 100 yards of tracking. I've made bad shots on deer and got a lucky recovery blindly looking or have a buddy find it while helping right after the kill. Does that mean you don't deserve to feel good about the hard work you put in to kill a mature buck even though something went amiss with the shot. It happens weather it be nerves or somethign else that caused the fouled shot but to say you don't deserve something and be proud of the deer you killed is dumb. We are all sportsman and have to do the best we can to preserve the sport. Hang him on the wall so the deer gets the respect it deserves. Weather or not you can be proud of a deer if you find it or not is all in the eye of the beholder, so to each his own but don't tell someone they shouldn't be proud of a deer they put their time in to kill and made the best effort possible to recover the deer imidiately. It happens to the best of bow hunters and no matter what the deer deserves complete respect in the end. WCL

Well, this is EXACTLY what happened to Wayne Zaft. Who's he? He's the young man from Edmonton, Alberta who killed (with a bow) what would have been the world record typical whitetail. They said his G-2 and G3 or G-3 and G-4 came from a common base. So, there were considerable deductions instead of added inches which dropped the score.
Anyway, do you think for a minute that this fellow isn't one of the proudest bowhunters walking the planet? I know I would be! Even under the circumstances that followed his shooting that buck, I would certainly call it a legitimate kill. I KNOW he does!

I'd do a euro mount on it. If you shot it and you know you shot it, then I'd feel good about it to. I hate when people coming down on other people about not finding a deer. It has happened to alot of us and no one really knows the conditions you are facing. Congrats on getting him back!

I agree with Charlie.
If I don't recover the animal while the meat is still good, I didn't do my job. Have no interest in keeping any momentos of one I didn't earn.