I get to my stand 1 hour prior to daylight doing everything right with scent and sound control. Stand is 200 yds. from where a nice buck has been crossing the road each morning to travel to his bedding area just beyond my stand. Everything is right. Wind, temp, equipment, confidence. Why doesn't he show? Because I find him exactly where I know him to cross the road with a buzzard on him and his head freshly lopped off!

to answer your question....BAD.

Poachers, It is a sad world we live in! I had been watching a nice 10pt during bow season last year but he never got close for bow shot. Was going to drop him in rifle season, but found his body gunshot with rack sawed off before season. Stunk for quite awhile.

sounded more like a car than poachers. Still sucks.

I heard a story like that today from one of my dads buddies.. He farms some land that he deer hunts on and has been watching this monster of a 14 point buck take the same path every day. When opening day rolls around he is up in his stand right in the path that this big buck takes. The buck came in on course with 3 doe's with him that had been traveling with him for some time now. One of the doe's winds him and she takes off and the rest follow behind. The next morning he is walking to the stand sure enough, he finds the carcas of the buck with the head choped off. It had been shot with a high powered rifle from the road. Hearing about that kind of thing just makes me sick!!!

Yeah, it had to be a car. I thoroughly checked it over for bullet or arrow entries and found none. Actually only found a couple of small spots where the hair was rubbed off. No other damage other than the rectal exam the buzzard was conducting. Forgot to put this in original post. This being the case I was much more put out than angry. Since I can't say he was intentionally killed I really can't be mad, just disgusted he couldn't make it a little further. That's what I mean about poor luck.

Thats gotta suck, sorry to hear!!

Bad luck Whiskey, sorry to hear of this. Could you possibly have his daddy lined up ??

[:'(] I'm not suprised though. I hear this a couple of times a season. It seems big buck are better at eludeing hunters then cars. The part of the story that pisses me off the most is that someone would take the head/rack and leaev the rest of the animal to rot.

It disgust me! Piss poor luck IMO.