I shot a huge buck on November 6th just before 6:00 PM. He was quartering to and the arrow entered on his right side just behind the shoulder at a 30 degree angle (left to right) and a 45 degree angle down. He took off and I quietly returned home. The next day we went out and found the broken arrow. He still had 12 - 13" of arrow in him. Since the arrow did not have a complete pass through, there was no blood trail. We ended up searching a total of 450 acres for him. I was sick to my stomach for two weeks. Today, the neighbor came by and said someone in his grandson's hunting group shot a buck who was laying down. At first they thought the buck had been gored by another buck because there was a whole in his right side. When they cut him open they said he reeked from infection (gangrene) and there was a broken arrow inside. So they just cut off the head and left the rest lay. I called the grandson and left a message but he didn't call back. I also asked the neighbor if he saw the head and he said he saw the other bucks they harvested that day but not that one. I really want to see this beast and know what he ended up measuring out at, but I'll have to wait and see if they call me back.
just curious, what will you say to the guy who shot it? will you want the buck or is it his for the keeping? just curious how you, (and anyone else who wants to put their input in) will stand on a situation like this. i personally would like to atleast see the buck and take pictures with it, and then let the other guy take claim of it, since he truly made the kill shot on it.
thats what i thought you would think, i was just curious though im assuming most everyone on this site would have the same response. but i have heard of people having "scuffles" over situations like this. i cant believe the buck would survive for two weeks (i think that is what you said the time between it was) do you wonder if the buck was dead already and the other person just saw it from a distance thinking it was alive, and put a bullet in it? i know its possible for a buck to survive for quite awhile with half a arrow in it, and the area around the arrow to become infected and smelly. but the fact that it smelled horrible makes me think it was dead already, just hard for me to believe if the vital section of the deer was that infected, it could still be alive.
I intend to ask to see the carcass "so I can get the rest of the arrow back". I know last year they found the remains of a buck someone else had shot and they kept that one. If the carcass is decimated then I may very well ask for the head back. We'll have to wait and see.
Good luck. I retrieved the arrow out of my late recovery buck. It wasn't pretty. But, at least I knew. Hope it's your arrow in him. At least you'll know.
I think Jeff is suggesting that they claim they killed the buck. To verify, his suggestion to IV is to see the carcass to see if their story holds up.
My suggestion is to check the carcass to see if the arrow is even IV's. If it isn't, we have a moot point.
If He tosses you a bone IV, then be thankful. If not, then accept the fact He is putting it to a higher use... Whose face is on the deer? Take the experience to your heart. Warm wishes amigo...
Why, either way, as far as I see it, it's FINDER's KEEPER's!!! If I shoot and lose a buck, I have no "right to it," just because I shot it!!! Sorry Mark, but even if it WAS dead for a while, as I see it, I don't believe you have any "rights" to that head. (see above response) As I stated above, there is no RIGHT to this animal. I can understand wanting to see it, and even to attempt to retrieve the arrow to have some closure, and verification that it was the deer you shot, but beyond that, the head belongs in the hands that recovered it. Sorry bro, if that deer were laying on my place, and I finished it, it'd get a euro mount, and sit atop one of my entertainment centers in the man room. Whether he'd been dead for weeks, or I killed him. Just the way we roll around here. I have a buddy that has the antlers to the biggest buck I've ever killed because HE found it 3 days later when the crows showed it to him. I lost it, he found it, he offered it up but I declined as I didn't feel I deserved it. Some 15yrs. later, I still feel that way. That rack leaves me with lots of regrets, questions, and lessons learned. But that rack also belongs to the one who found it, and that was not me. Agreed Jeff, but even if it's Mark's arrow I don't believe he has any claim to that animal. Agreed Will. (Sorry, kind of gonna sound like Atlas here) For me, personally, the lost animal symbolizes the hunter's failure at some level. In this case, the failure would seem to be poor shot placement choosing to take a quartering to shot on an angle that wasn't amenable to a good result. Over a month later that animal is found, dead or alive, it's still over a month later, the animal was NOT recovered by the original shooter, then that person has no claim to the animal. I can completely understand if he'd like to see it, verify if it IS indeed the animal that he'd shot, but beyond that, unless the finder WANTS to give it to him, they is no responsibility of the finder to give the deer to the guy who originally WOUNDED the animal. And this goes, whether it were a little fork horn, or a 200" NT that may potentially have a $20k value. In the end, the deer belongs to the STATE, until killed or retrieved. The only exception I might make is if Mark had stopped hunting from that point forward and torn up his buck tag as a symbol of respect to that animal that he'd arrowed and lost, and in all honesty, even then it's a tough sell to me. I finished a nice 8pt one time that a young kid in our hunting group had shot during gun season, the deer shot in the ass-end came plodding by, and I busted him good clean lung shot, dropping him about 40yds. later. In that case, the kid had just shot him not 5 minutes before, and it was a BAD shot, but WAS going to kill the deer eventually, I felt the animal was rightfully his, and had that deer been shot in a manner that was less likely to kill it, I'd still have felt I'd done the right thing in giving it to the kid, but there's an exception for "KIDS." Probably made that kid's LIFE, and it warmed my heart to do it. Sorry if that rubs any of you the wrong way, but that's my take on it.... Now I have a tree to go sneak into.....
My only contention was/is.....if it isn't his arrow............moot point (even discussing it). If I'm "grandson", first thing I'm gonna ask IV is.....what type of arrow were you shooting. Then, I'd go with him to the carcass. After that, my opinion doesn't matter on where things should go (IF it's the buck IV arrowed). At this point, though, the head's the last thing I'd let anyone see.
Could be a tricky situation. In my neck of the woods it is not legal to pick up a deer that you did not legally kill yourself. In other words, if you happen upon a deer on your land that you did not kill, you cannot tag it. The only thing you can do is let it lay. I know in the real world this is not how it works but that is what the law states.
