Not Quite What We Were Hunting For

[vdduplander]

This season was not as successfull as I hoped but with each outing I learned and made a few discoveries...

This deer was found on 26DEC07. Quill and I were walking back to the truck after a long afternoon of hunting with all the birds flushing wild about 150 yards ahead of us. He picked up the scent and started moving back towards the way we came. I couldn't understand why he was going backwards and I was alittle upset since he would not respond properly to my commands. Then I saw this deer. The coyotes had already started eating the carcass. I called the game warden and since there were none on duty we went out the next day to recover what was left. All that was left was the head, hooves, and guts. This was a unrecovered deer from the gun season. I know there is somebody out there pretty upset they did not recover this deer.
View attachment 106

This deer was found much the same way except we made back to the truck and while I was putting my gun and hunting vest away, Quill wandered off. This deer was only 30 yard from my truck. I believe this was a poached deer as I found it in tact on 12JAN08. I find it hard to believe this deer would have survived with three legs for 11-12 days. The "hunter" blew off the left side of the rack and broke the deer's rear leg. Unfortunate because he was a real nice 9-11 point deer.View attachment 105

Both deer were reported and recovered with a salvage tag.

 

[Cackleburs]

Quite a story vvd. Every time I see or hear about these things I grimace. In fact this the first season in a very long time I haven't come across a similar situation. I have a couple racks myself I've come across during post deer season pheasants hunts. In fact about three years ago my Brit, Bobbie and I came across 6 different unclaimed kills. 2 bucks and 4 does in about a 250 ac. public area. I'm not sure who was responsible, but obviously their shooting skills are dubious. We have all lost birds in the field, so we know it's an unpleasant side of what we do. I just hope that we all strive to attain a level of proficiency in the field that allows us to make quick clean kills and keep the lost and wounded game to the absolute minimum. We owe it to the creatures we seek.