Lost a 6pt bow huntig, found it during gun season,meat was no good but I took the head and horns do I claim the buck and put it on the broadhead post?

I should tell the story behind this. I shot the buck, spine shot [never do it again]
it ran off so I waited about ahalf hr before trailing it, I followed it about a 100 yrds
and then backed off deciding to come back in the morning. Myself and two kids got
on the blood trail the next moring, we followed it about another 150 yrds making
it about 250 yrds from my stand we ran out of blood and tracks and no arrow
yet. we did a 150 yrd circle search around the last blood nothing. Well I gun hunt
the same area, while walking some of the fire lanes I ran into a young guy and we started talking about his group and how they were doing, he was telling me that they only got a small buck and a few does. Then he said he found a 6 pt buck on a drive earlier that day and he thought it must of got hit by acar because it has been there for awhile. I asked him to show it to me, sure enough it was my buck
there was a 4 blade broadhead hole 1 inch to the left of the spine. I back tracked from the deer to the last spot of blood area, I found the arrow 50 yrds from the deer the deer was 250 yrds from the last blood trail area. Do I claim the buck?
My arrow killed him, I got the horns, the rearend was eaten and the meat was
no good which is a sad thing.

That' s tough man, I had a similar situation but I never found the deer. I' ll tell you what I decided and you can do whatever you like. I decided that if I tooke the antlers because the rest was rotted or eaten that I would tag the deer. If I didn' t take any part of the deer home I would not. Good luck with a tough decision.

I' d claim it as a lost deer.... found.. but not taken with the bow. You can call it a pick up category. NO, I wouldn' t think it should go into the harvest totals.

I can' t make the decision for you as to or not, tag the deer. I am a guide for IMB Outfitters in Pike Co, Illinois and I have tracked many deer this year alone, some for a 1000 yards or better and never found them. Many of them make it to property that borders ours and we are not allowed to look for them there. Not all the property owners are this way though and we do recover many that make it off our properties. When we have found a deer after the hunter has left, we notify him so he can claim the rack and tag it. We do make every effort to find those deer shot, but sometimes it is the buzzards that lead you to the kill.

tough call in some states can' t you get a finders permit to claim the antlers....

If you' re really proud of it, claim it.

I shot a nice buck on 11/8, at 11:00 am. I thought he went 100 yards and piled up, but when I tracked him an hour later, he jumped out of his bed. I decided to wait until the next day to finish tracking. I looked all day Sunday, he got in an area covered with water, and there was no blood trail. I couldn' t miss work on Monday, and the meat was going to be bad anyway, but I then took a sick day and found him. I had hit him in the liver, he went about 150 yards and bedded, then went another 350 yards after I jumped him. I' m still sick about it.
My answer is no, I don' t count it on my " total" . I took the antlers, but didn' t check the deer. I won' t " mount" the antlers, or display them. I pick up every buck skull or shed antler I find, and threw this one in with them. Something to admire and look at occasionaly, but not a bowhunting trophy. Just my opinion, to each his own.

personally, i think i would claim it, in indiana we only get one buck per year, so if i had not shot another buck yet and was positive this was mine, i would claim it, shoot a doe if you want some meat......your decision

If you used the rules of P&Y, no it wouldn' t be a bow kill.