Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

Lately I have been seeing alot of headless dead deer laying by the roads. I was just wondering how many of you have actually stopped and cut off a bucks head?

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

Guilty, probably three counts. But I usually take the whole deer and dispose of the carcass behind the house for coyote bait. Got a whole wall of nut'n but skull mounts. Some found in woods, some roadkill, but mostof 'em I killed.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

One morning my wife came back from dropping my daughter off at work and she told me about a big buck laying on side of road. Whe i got out there, there was a state trooper there cutting the horns off it. Turns out another trooper hit it at about 80 miles an hour! He wrecked the car and was taking the horns as a momento.

Last week someone hit a big ten pointer and by the time I heard about it and got there the ehad was gone. I wouldnt cut the head off if I had time I would just scalp around the horns and cut the skull cap off.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

I've done it once, thats only because I was the first to find it i guess. I've seen other headless deer too.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

Why on Earth would you want the head of a roadkill buck?

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

U can use the antlers for just about anything, rattling horns. momentos, decoration, knife handles.

I have personelly taken antlers off 2 road kill bucks. The first one was in the middle of a couple bars alongside a country raod that have pet bears (:eek:) and it still had its velvet on, so me and my cousin both took an antler. Its a pretty neat conversation starter. The other was from a buck that was dead near one of my non-hunting freinds house. I took the antlers off and moved the body into the woods. I gave them to my brother for rattling antlers.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

I have not. Only because I have not seen a dead buck on the road. Only doe. I will let you know when I do.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

I never have, but I don't see anything wrong with it as long as you aren't claiming it as your trophy.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

The only time I ever attempted this, I got caught in a ditch by a State Highway Patrol. He ran me through the ringer and said that this was on a state highway, etc. He ended up letting me go and I have never thought about it again.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

it is illegal, or at least it is here in illinois! but even if i were to stop i dont carry a saw in the truck with me, so im kinda out of luck!

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

It is illegal here to have skulls that weren't legally harvested(aka tagged). This includes road kill, natural causes, etc. Though we can request a wildlife permit from the DNR for a nominal fee, like anything of the "STATE/CROWN" it is at there discretion and can refuse.I have seen many headless deer over the years but I have never sawed one off personally.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

It's illegal in Texas too. I've never done it, but know some who have. I have to admit considering it this year. On opening morning last month, a truck full of duck hunters nailed a nice young 10 point right in front of me. I was just about to pass them, but saw the deer coming out from the opposite side of the road. They hit and flipped him pretty high. Really a shame to see a nice young deer like that meet his demise that way, particularly since we were only about a mile from where I hunt. He might have grown up and come by my spot one day.

I pulled over, as did the truck that hit them, and told those guys maybe they should consider deer instead of duck hunting.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

Every year along the train tracks by my house I find a couple dead bucks. My house is full of antlers from deer I have found dead. One time I threw the whole deer in the back of my track on the highway because I didnt have a knife handy, and it wasnt even worth it since it was only a little six pointer. What can I say, I like deer antlers.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

I seen a little 8 point dead one day and I went home and got a saw and did what i had to do. You could barely see him in the woodline so his leftovers were well-hidden. So..im guilty as well.:)

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

It is illegal in PA. I see scalped deer on the highway all the time though.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

i can see taking theantlers but not the whole head. i wouldn't want a whole mount of something i didn't get

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

Years ago I found a big mule deer buck on the side of the road while heading home early in the morning. (I lived in Colorado at the time) I got a saw from home and went back and took the skull cap. After some measurements I realized he would have just missed B and C and just made P and Y at the timeif taken in the field. I took the horns to a taxidermist who purchased a cape and he now hangs on my wall. Everyone who sees him is told how he meat his demise. I felt such a regal buck deserved to be on a wall. Not just left in a ditch.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

On a related note, all of you do realize that the largest Boone and Crockett buck of record was found on the side of the road? Pretty interesting really.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

Foundby the Missouri Dept of Conservation in 1981 in St. Louis County.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

One of my uncles friends has about eight big bucks mounted on his wall and he only shot two of them. The rest were big bucks he found dead on the highway. I dont know why you would spend that kind of money to get a deer mounted that had been hit by a car. He has some other critters to like a fox and a big coon mounted that were roadkill.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

I,ve picked up about 8 roadkills a few were still warm the biggest was a 12 pt smallest was a 4 kept most of the meat except for 3 to mangled.Nothing wrong with keeping the meat gave most of it to people who are down on there luck.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

It's illegal here in Alabama, so no I haven't. I do, however have a 140-150 class rack/skull thatI found on my property while scouting after the 2005 season. I will eventually have a Euro mount.

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

highway roadcrews do it all the time..sometimes we get there when the deer is still breathing..or recently expired..then its butcherin time.. meat to eat..thats why we all carry sharp knives...or use a power saw from the work truck....hey..waste not want not


OR is it them cropcircle guys??

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

A friend of mine was behind a guy who hit a button buck, and stopped and picked it up to take home to use the meat. Its free!!:)

RE: Cutting heads of roadkill bucks?
 

I have picked up my last roadkill for meat. I have done it a few times, and the meat tastes usually little wild. I will be lucky to get tenderloins out of it, and maybe one hind.

As far as antlers. I could care less if someone cuts them off. I probably would. Never done it.

I'm about to get one today actually. Someone already got the antlers, I have an absolute unknown hatred for people like that, you know, the wasteful ones. I sometimes wish that people would take the whole skull so people won't be disappointed to see that the deer they've been eyeing was not a doe, but a buck someone already cut the antlers off.
Note: I don't care if any of you say "oh well it wasn't won fair" c'mon it's free, just take it, are you THAT annoyingly prideful?

It is also illegal in PA to remove the head or antlers from a road killed buck. In fact if a person gets a permit for the edible portions of a road killed deer they must surrender the antlers.

OR they have to BUY them from the game commission head is "X" dollars, and then they charge by the tine if you want the antlers(bears are the same way in PA only cost more $$ than deer do), and well MOST times wardens will pick up, to prevent people from doing so)

funny(and sorry this will offend you OT, don;t mean to just is what it is)

but since in PA< NO one seems to want to have the JOB of removing dead deer(Game commission USED to have it, even used to save hides and sell them, and had ROAD KILL PITS on game lands)
but dead deer are NO longer picked up by GC, and DOT claims NOT there job either

BUT as soon s a person WANTS IT< suddenly the GAME commission , values it, needs to get PAID!

where if NO one wants it , it can just rot away on the side of the road!!
seems like a MONEY making game to me anymore!
not there job to remove it, but need to get paid if someone wants it be it for the head or the meat, either way SOMEONE is removing it , should just be free, there DEAD
I'd rather see them get used, than be rotting away on road ways!
I'm all good with NEEDING a permit to take it, but STOP charging for the hide and head and tines!
just be happy someone is removing and making good use out of it!

seems to me like deer don;'t have any VALUE till someone wants them to the PA GC! then they NEED to get paid!
other wise it can just rot away!
its not the DOT's job to remove or the GC 's job! officially,
SO?

just be glad someone wants it and will remove it for FREE!

The price is $10.00 a point. That is the price the PGC sells antlers for, either road kills or antlers in evidence for illegal deer after the case is closed. That money goes into the game fund to be used for wildlife conservation. It is legal to possess shed antlers but they have to be shed and not on a skull unless the possessor has a permit to possess or has legally harvested the deer. People who illegally take deer heads or antlers are stealing from the sportsmen of PA. There are legal ways to possess antlers and illegal ways to possess them. You aren't offending me, I didn't make the laws I only enforced them and know the reason for them. And as a matter of information, it is the job of penndot to keep state highways clean of litter and the job of municipalities to keep their roads clean. It never was the the job of the PGC, they did it for decade after decade as a curtesy until they just didn't have the time to be garbage men anymore. They don't send people to school for a year only to have them come out of school and be garbage men and women!