finding dead deer while hunting.

[Red]

so friday i went out to do some deer hunting on a farm that i hunt out near letchworth state park on my way out of the woods i came across a nice 8pt 90-100" dead torn apart by the coyotes so not sure how he died but altogether this year i found 6 dead in the woods 2 on the farms and 4 in the park. 5 of them were bucks and one doe. just wanted to see what and how many other people are finding dead while hunting.

[bkln]

Not many, found one last year while fishing and one while hunting and one small fawn this year after yotes got her. Six sounds high to me but then again it depends how many deer your area can carry

[Gthphtm]

We would find at least 1 every year,either people to lasey to track them or just do not think the hit them.

[rong]

found one,a 2- 1/2 yr old 7 pf,descent buck,looked em over an couldnt find any wound?maybe was hit by a car usually find 1 a yr

[Dad 6424]

In the area were I hunt and live BEFORE any season started my sons and my self found 7 deer dead and 5 were shot in the head or neck I would think it might be car hits but all the ones shot were at the edge of fields and woods so poaching is heavy and not getting any better and now there leaving the bodys behind

[MountainHunter]

Hardly ever. I have actually been surprised that it doesn't happen more often with as much as I hunt and as much area that I cover.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

Shawn you have to remember where you are hunting!!!!!! High city guys the first week of shotgun and wearing brown carharts and the every loving damadge permits givin to the farmers. I said i before that i wish i had a beer for everytime one of the local's at the local watering hole told of guys on farms just gut shooting deer..buck and doe and let them run off the farm and die. Im sure you could get in a huge fight on here about them. My view...do away with them give farms dmap's and make every tag need to be shown..either filled with names and address or an empty tag mailed back...Period!!!

[Jennifer]

I'm surprised to say that I haven't found one in all my years of hunting, and I put in a lot of time, and hunt after deer season for small game. I figure I'm probably the exception, though, sadly.

[ncountry]

Yes, This year I found 3 dead deer while archery hunting in the newly opened archery zone in Letchworth.

[Doc]

I've found dead deer and a couple of them were still edible. Quite a few years ago, I was hunting state land and heard one of those 5 shot volleys down in a nearby thicket. I jumped up on a high spot where I could see the small field above the thicket and saw 5 deer come out. Four of them crossed the field and went up the hill and one came out in the field and turned back into the thicket. Tracks had to be obvious because there was about 6" of snow on the ground. I watched for a minute and out came a hunter. He took a couple of steps out into the field. looked to the left then the right and before I could get his attention, he did an about face and headed back into the thicket. A couple minutes later, I heard a car start up and off he went. I never saw anyone put so little effort into recovering a deer or even checking whether or not he hit it. Naturally. I went down to check the situation out. I followed the four sets of tracks part way up the hill far enough to know that none of them were leaking. Then I remembered that one that didn't follow the rest and went back into the thicket. I went back down and located it's track. Yes, there was plenty of blood and yes I did find it almost within sight of where the hunter stepped out in the field. It was a monster doe ....... steaming fresh and eventually mighty fine eating.

The point is that when a deer doesn't flop right down, some guys assume that they missed. The way this guy ripped off the 5 shots, probably 90% of the time he'd be right. Sending 5 slugs ripping through a thicket and then spending about 4 minutes checking to see if any of the deer were actually hit, is certainly the height of irresponsibility. Actually it probably wouldn't have ben a bad idea to see if there might have been some other hunter laying dead in the area, with that wild display of throwing lead through a thicket. But anyway, I'll bet that is how a lot of deer wind up rotting away in the woods. It's a shame, but this sort of thing does happen occasionally.

[bkln]

...High city guys the first week of shotgun and wearing brown carharts ...

C'mon man what's wrong with carharts now...??? :-)

[GreeneHunter]

Found a Doe already dressed about 25 feet in from the road on my property ... The trespassing bastards probably didnt have a tag for it or hopefully someone showed up ! Such a waste !

[Doc]

Now there is a situation where the Tipp line should have been used. You just know that someone was planning on coming back after dark to pick it up. That also is an opportunity where the DEC guys could have made an easy bust.

[wooly]

I haven't found any dead deer yet this year but if you ask me again in March/April (shed season), I'll probably have between 20-30 to report as usual.

[ncountry]

Years ago ,some friends and I were hunting one of our properties. On the way out, from our morning hunt, we heard a gunshot.Obviously in one of our meadows. Sure enough there was a dead doe laying in the field. No one on the way to claim it. We debated what to do and decided to lay it over a round bale and see if they returned and got it.To there benefit, when we returned for the night hunt. the deer was gone .

[Gthphtm]

People have been shot at wearing brown carharts people doing the shooting said it looked like a deer.

[marine74]

I found a young buck this evening missing his head on a property bordering mine, and I am seeing this quite often and it disgusts me. To think of all the unfortunate families in this state that go with out food we have idiots doing this.

[teamcowboyup]

Found 4 bucks with just the antlers missing the other night shot by my so called law abiding coservationalist neighbor. Bahahaha b/s, cause they were all shot the same day his son said and dumped them on my property. Now they have a nice resting place inside his 20ft enclosed and heated non vented gonna smell horrible next year tree stand.

[MuzzyLoader]

Years ago I had a doe come running toward my stand and drop dead about 50 yards in front of me. She laid there for about an hour and nobody came looking for her. I gutted her out and let her lay while I hunted for a buck.

About 3 hours passed and a hunter in BO came walking through the woods. He was from NJ and said he had not seen a deer all week and was leaving for NJ in the morning. I told him about the doe... he asked if he could tag it and take it home. I never saw him again, but he couldn't wait to take that doe home.

I have no idea who shot at that deer... another 'Oh I guess I missed' mentality verses one of following up on your shot.

[Lawdwaz]

After finding my archery buck at the end of a 75-100 yard blood trail, I stumbled into the buck pictured below. He was only 15 yards from my buck and appeared to be dead only a few hours?? No obvious signs of his demise.

Hit by car? .22 in the belly? punctured vitals from getting pushed around by another buck? Hell if I know.....

I've found enough other dead deer over the years but most showed a cause of death (arrow, bullet or car) that was pretty easy to pick out.

[GreeneHunter]

Now there is a situation where the Tipp line should have been used. You just know that someone was planning on coming back after dark to pick it up. That also is an opportunity where the DEC guys could have made an easy bust.

I agree ..... I was in there again today and it looks half eaten - Coyotes ?

[Skillet]

Didn't find any during archery. One forkhorn in gun.

[max3]

Being an avid bird hunter I typicaly find at least one dear during the archery season and then after gun season when I resume chasing grouse I always find more carcass's . One year found the remains of 9 deer with in two miles of my house. I do live in an area that gets a lot of hunting pressure. Scary to think I am hunting in the same woods with these nimrods !

[Red]

After finding my archery buck at the end of a 75-100 yard blood trail, I stumbled into the buck pictured below. He was only 15 yards from my buck and appeared to be dead only a few hours?? No obvious signs of his demise.

Hit by car? .22 in the belly? punctured vitals from getting pushed around by another buck? Hell if I know.....

I've found enough other dead deer over the years but most showed a cause of death (arrow, bullet or car) that was pretty easy to pick out.

thats about the same size the 8 pointer was that i found friday.

[Jennifer]

These stories are really depressing. Especially after hunting so hard for venison the last three years and coming up empty handed. I think the bucks with heads removed are what disturb me the most... even if a guy doesn't want the meat, I'm really quite sure that he could donate or find someone that did want it. I guess the only consolation is that the deer aren't truly wasted, as nature will recycle them and it feeds other critters. Still, it's unnecessary in most cases.

Doc, your story is horrifying. Perhaps even more scary is that I busted someone doing just this right behind my house last week! Threw a few slugs at a group of does about 200 yards behind my house, and he didn't even take a few steps to check for a hit, just turned around to walk back home before I caught up to him. I checked after I talked to him and it didn't appear that he connected with any of the deer. At least he didn't connect with my home or livestock either...!