This was 5 years ago today, after my morning sit (gun hunting with a shotgun) I was walking back up to the hunting cabin, and decided to take a slightly longer hike back by taking a different trail than normal. there was a small ditch that I had to walk through half way down one of the trails I had to take, as I approached this ditch I saw a large set of antlers, so I stopped and stepped behind a tree and as I continued to try to get a better look I could tell this deer wasn't getting up. I called the property owner (my father in law) and told him this deer was laying there and clearly something was wrong with him, either he had been shot by a neighbor and ran here, or was sick or something. I ended up shooting the buck as he could barely pick his head up even as I walked up within 10 yards. after shooting the deer I went to drag him out of the ditch, as I pulled him his back leg now exposed opened up and could tell he had been hit by a car and it smelt something horrible. This poor deer had probably been laying there all the previous night and until I found him. Because the meat was ruined and the deer probably septic I just drug him off the trail and took his antlers, we put a camera on him to try to get a coyote count. A year later my father in law while looking for sheds found the deers skull, we put the antlers and skull back together and made it into a euro mount. This deer I think was old and on the downward spiral of life, he was only a 6 pointer, but he was no young deer. this weekend while at the cabin, I'll snap a picture of his Euro on the wall. if you look at the 3rd picture, his left rear leg, it looks like a leaf up against his body, its not, thats his leg bone.
I had a similar situation w. a pretty nice 9pt. I was hunting the middle of my property, but I was hearing some coyotes on the south side. They were going crazy and honestly I thought maybe it was some hunters. I got down and headed that way to check it out, and make sure someone wasn't trespassing. Ended up walking up on him, he was bedded down in a real thick dozer pile. As I approached him I could see that he was struggling to get up. I watched for a bit and decided to do the right thing and burn my tag on him. He had been shot, but it was just through the skin. It had gotten infected and it looked like he had gangrene. I just have is skull cap sitting on my fireplace hearth.
