can you imagine not following up a shot on this deer.

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Buddy of mine came up on this dead deer intact in a thinck ravine doing a small 2 man drive. ..so wasn't that long ago. shot couple inches behind the front shoulder...straight through. He said it may have taken the top of the heart but definitely took both lungs.

Can you imagine shooting at a buck like this and not following it up. The tracks were in the snow from what he said but were old so it was hit with snow on the ground. The shot may not have taken this monster off his feet but he couldn't have gone far.

23" inside spread...6 and change circumferences and green scored 153 and change NET...and that is an 8 pointer.

guy didnt deserve to bag this buck....oh and it was on public land.

[phade]

If tracks were still visible...what about the blood trail?

Anyone would hate to see a stud like that go unclaimed...but there's too many variables that I simply can't determine as to what constituted a good faith effort to follow up.

Did he burn his own tag or get one from the DEC for that buck? He should be able to enter that as a found buck in th state book, if he wants to. For an 8, that's impressive.

[WhiteTailBuckDeer]

Whoever shot it problably never gave it time to expire. I've learned the hard way to give them time. When I was younger I Shot my first buck with a Bow. Double lunged it and only gave him a couple of min. I was too excited and I kept pushing him. It took me almost six hours till I finally found him.

[wooly]

What a shame. I see it every year post season, deer that should have absolutely positively been recovered but lay to waste.

He sure could have found a better resting place on a more deserving hunters wall with a little follow up.

I'm sure your buddy will keep him warm this winter.

[letinmfly]

That's a nice buck!!  Someone was sure heartbroken not finding that bad boy.  :-\

[Culvercreek hunt club]

the snow was about 6-8" deep but had new snow down since the tracks were made. He said it looked like a rifle entrance woundso it was probably a week o the ground. Said he couldn't see blood because of the ne snow but the depressions of the deers tracks were still visible.

I hat to judge too but I cant believe ...in snow....on public land you don't follow this guy til you run out of realestate. I mean ...let's assume the fat blocked it up and never bled a drop. You hae snow...follow the tracks...even if I missed I would have tried to catch back up to one like this

[Culvercreek hunt club]

What a shame. I see it every year post season, deer that should have absolutely positively been recovered but lay to waste.

He sure could have found a better resting place on a more deserving hunters wall with a little follow up.

I'm sure your buddy will keep him warm this winter.

He is a crazy shed hunting fanatic...it will probably go inthe pile with the others. Some of the horns he has are crazy

[phade]

the snow was about 6-8" deep but had new snow down since the tracks were made. He said it looked like a rifle entrance woundso it was probably a week o the ground. Said he couldn't see blood because of the ne snow but the depressions of the deers tracks were still visible.

I hat to judge too but I cant believe ...in snow....on public land you don't follow this guy til you run out of realestate. I mean ...let's assume the fat blocked it up and never bled a drop. You hae snow...follow the tracks...even if I missed I would have tried to catch back up to one like this

Certainly right about that.

My only foreseeable issue with it being a rifle shot, is if it were shot from a distance on the edge of open ground and the thick brush where it was found. I suppose it's possible the hunter was far enough and in the excitement was unable to locate the deer's point of impact to cut his tracks, or determine which track's were his (from other deer) somehow. I've seen it happen while shotgunning once in a blue moon, eventually the impact spot is found, but I suppose I could see that as an issue. I tend to have issue when bowhunting following a deer that's been hit and runs out of sight...I try to remember specific trees, etc. but when I get on the ground, it's much harder to find.

You almost have to think a stud like that would certainly be followed up on because of its sheer size alone...I bet that poor guy cried in his beer that night.

[WhiteTailBuckDeer]

What county was it in?

[Culvercreek hunt club]

Yates

[Geno C]

thats just sickening, really...

i wonder the effort the hunter did/didnt put fourth in pursuing that stud. i dont want to pass judgment on someone especially with out REALLY knowing the truth behind the story but if what you say does happen to carry some truth culver, well then thats just a damn shame. i wouldnt step foot in the woods to hunt again until ive ran myself ragged trying to find that deer...

hes a really nice buck, really nice....

[Geno C]

the snow was about 6-8" deep but had new snow down since the tracks were made. He said it looked like a rifle entrance woundso it was probably a week o the ground. Said he couldn't see blood because of the ne snow but the depressions of the deers tracks were still visible.

I hat to judge too but I cant believe ...in snow....on public land you don't follow this guy til you run out of realestate. I mean ...let's assume the fat blocked it up and never bled a drop. You hae snow...follow the tracks...even if I missed I would have tried to catch back up to one like this

Certainly right about that.

My only foreseeable issue with it being a rifle shot, is if it were shot from a distance on the edge of open ground and the thick brush where it was found. I suppose it's possible the hunter was far enough and in the excitement was unable to locate the deer's point of impact to cut his tracks, or determine which track's were his (from other deer) somehow. I've seen it happen while shotgunning once in a blue moon, eventually the impact spot is found, but I suppose I could see that as an issue. I tend to have issue when bowhunting following a deer that's been hit and runs out of sight...I try to remember specific trees, etc. but when I get on the ground, it's much harder to find.

You almost have to think a stud like that would certainly be followed up on because of its sheer size alone...I bet that poor guy cried in his beer that night.

phade has a point... i agree

[NY Trophy Hunter]

A real Shame.

[Doewhacker]

Was it near a road perhaps?

I'm sure who ever shot it lost their head like so many do, if a deer doesn't fall over dead many cannot find it. Fataly shot deer do not have magic powers to survive massive trama and blood loss contrary to popular beleif. They will die in a short amount of time no matter what. I keep reading on here that guys have had deer run hundreds of yards on a double lung or heart shot, to them I say BS! Now if you push a liver or gut hit deer they can and will go very very far from where you jumped them. Maybe some of us need to learn how to track wounded game instead of starring at the rack and dreaming about the mount all day long. Mistakes happen but in this case who ever shot this buck was clearly incompetent when it came to dead deer recovery. shesh, reading that pissed me off! Thanks Culver! 

[Culvercreek hunt club]

yeah frosted me a little too, Doe. I felt like $hit over the doe I lost up north and I burned the entire afternoon tracking her. I had decent blood at times....no snow and followed her 2 1/5 miles. i know in my heart I would have gotten her if the farmer had let me in there. The only thing that makes it better is i am betting it didn't go to waste.....I bet it is in his freezer...lol

Even if the deer went 200 yards  and the entire 200 yards was covered in tracks. I am betting with snow on the ground it wouldn't take you a day to find him.

I dind't think to ask about the road thing. GREAT point. Maybe this guy fell pray to a jacker and he didn't go into a pile and they didn't attempt a retrieve

[First-light]

Why, why, why we ask. Maybe it was road hunters who poached the deer and were not able to find it for one reason or another. Too big of a deer to give up on by a decent hunter that would sway me to think some incompetent poacher did this.

[fasteddie]

That's a beautiful rack !

[JPP]

phade and doewhacker both have great observations cited here.

Many reasons why something like this could happen. But then again, could have been a greenhorn who shot the deer and figured if it didn't fall over, he missed.

Could be too the same greenhorn heard other shooting and figured "aw, man...someone else got the deer."

That is a beauty. Wow, what a buck!!!

[Paulie]

DoeW, you called BS on double lung or heart shot dear running a few hundred yards. I'll call BS on you! Haha In my younger years, hunting with my father he shot a doe and blew the heart apart!(There was no heart when we dressed her) She ran 150 yards in a circle. They are probably the most resilent animals out there. I've also witnessed a huge 10 get shot with a bow (from my vantage point it was right in the boilermaker) thought to be a double lung shot (although it could have only been one)...needless to say a blind person could follow this blood trail, it was everywhere, on the ground, bubbles, waste high on trees and shrubs. We tracked too quick because the shot looked so good...jump the deer twice and he ran over a mile. To this day, I cannot fathom how he ran that far losing so much blood...

In any event, you need to exhaust all options once a shot is made. Without knowing the details here its tough to c

omment.

[Doc]

I'm sure who ever shot it lost their head like so many do, if a deer doesn't fall over dead many cannot find it.

I've seen it. One time I heard a shot in the thicket at the base of a small skinny field. Seconds later, 5 deer came running out of the thicket. Four of them ran straight across the field and up the hill. The 5th one came out and circled back into the thicket. In a few minutes, I saw a guy come out just into the edge of the field. He looked left then right and turned around and was back on the thicket. He did all that so fast, I never had a chance to get his attention or even react at all. I was surprised to hear a car door slamming a few minutes later and a car started up and took off. I kind of sat there in a bit of a state of shock not believing what I just saw.

Yeah, you guessed it. When I walked down to the other end of the field, sure enough when the deer turned and went back into the thicket, that was her last bound. She laid right there in plain sight, not 50 yards from where the guy was standing.

There was no blood. The deer was killed with a Texas heart shot with absolutely no meat destroyed. Fortunately, I had a permit.

So I know there are people who assume they missed if the deer doesn't fall dead right on the spot. If I hadn't have been sitting at the other end of the field that deer would have been wasted.

It is possible that this buck ran into the same kind of guy. Deer didn't go right down so he must have missed.  >

[Paulie]

Doc, what's a Texas heart shot?

[wooly]

He is a crazy shed hunting fanatic...it will probably go inthe pile with the others. Some of the horns he has are crazy

Yeah we get all the leftovers the coyotes can't digest while everyones home staying warm by the fire.

[Doc]

Doc, what's a Texas heart shot?

It's a shot where the bullet/slug is heading for the heart via the poop-chute.....lol. This guy made that shot almost perfect, and all the bleeding was internal, and almost no meat lost at all (That's a pretty rare result for that kind of shot). It's one of those shots that guys get tempted into when "jump-shooting" deer. Not much excuse for that kind of shot, but some guys just don't care.

[nyantler]

Definitely can be entered in the NY book as a found deer. That's a BIG 8-point!

[Culvercreek hunt club]

I know...when he told me the measurements I was like...WOW. for an 8 to score like that is pretty impressive. Hard to believe that probably would have been dropped as a managment buck in some ranches because of the attraction to more points