SteveBNy

And I would suspect someone with a gun taking a poke with a prayer. Believe it or not, gunhunters wound and lose deer too.

EFH

Wow, heck of a deer! Sorry you didn't get to harvest him yourself. Like already's been said, he would make a good skull mount or get a mount with a new cape, he would look good. On the bright side, at least you know hes had time to pass down some good genes. Hope you find another good one to hunt next year.

GTOHunter

I would say he's at least 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 years old,lots of mass to his Antlers and a nice Big Body so he has a little age on him for sure!Thats a shame to find him like that,he would have been a heck of a Brute in 2011.


I found a nice Big 10-Point Buck dead on our Farm last year,I had several trail camera pictures of him and Bow Hunted him for 2 years.I ended up calling the local Game Warden and got a reciept to keep the Buck and I took him to my local Taxidermist and he re-Caped him and he's graces my wall in all his former glory!If You have a lot of history with Your Buck I would either have a European Mount made of the head or re-Cape him and enjoy him as he would have been.I have a series of trail camera pictures I plan on hanging on the wall besides my 10-Pointer so I can enjoy it along with the refurbished Mount.

KYDeerHunter03

Yea I plan on definitely getting a cape and mounting him, I do taxidermy on the side so thats a FOR SURE thing lol

I did find tracks in the snow about 2 weeks or so before I found him and they had this reddish brownish junk dripping all around them. I followed them and the deer was walking in circles....as you noticed his feet were huge so I am kinda leaning towards it was him. Because I found him probably 70 yards from where I stopped following the tracks.

Like you guys said, its great I get to have him but I sure would have loved to have harvested him.

VA5326

Wow that hurts. It always hurts to see deer like that. Hopefully, it was from natural causes.

DocD

You are CORRECT!!! I didn't mean to single out Bow hunters, an apology is in order and I do so!!! There are many reasons for its demise, but I don't think it is from natural causes, BUT you never know, just like everything else-- deer die!!! I read a story a few years ago about a Michigan hunter who tagged his deer without a shot, it seems he startled a deer, the deer fell over dead, they figured it had a heart attack, (boy did that guy get "Ribbed") we don't know and we never will, I am just glad he was found and now can be immortalized !!! looking forward to the pictures. Doc

flyinlowe

When I saw the pics of the buck horns on the ground I thought "it can't be over 130 inches" then I saw the pic of the lady holding it and you can really see how big it is. Doesn't even look like the same rack.
Its is a shame it was harvested in this fashion.

oldshedhunter35

I've found alot of deer like that while shed hunting over the yrs.It used to bother me but I realize nothing goes to waste in nature and I got great racks to hang on the wall and tell lies about how I killed them.I just hope they spread there genes far and wide....

NJheadhunter71

Neat story. I guess you will have to keep guessing how he died. Like stated earlier, when I saw the cam pic then the rack on the ground I wouls have guessed 123-135. But when your holding it it looks allot bigger.

7.62NATO

Man, that's a shame. I agree with the euro mount requests. Post pics if you do it! Edit: I missed your post about caping him....that's awesome.

Confused by this statement...there's nothing fresh about that deer!!