finding dead deer while hunting.

[bkln]

...few slugs at a group of does about 200 yards behind my house...

Seriously, shooting slugs at 200 yards and hoping for a hit? Now that's a scary proposition...

[Jennifer]

Seriously, shooting slugs at 200 yards and hoping for a hit? Now that's a scary proposition...

My wording was pretty crappy, I apologize. He was 200 yards from my home. I am not sure how far he was from the deer. I only knew it was a group of does because I encountered them when going back to talk to him.

[Red]

im gonna guess not all the bucks found dead and missing their racks were from poachers im sure some of them are from hunting with the bow or the gun and not finding the animal right away then stumbling on it later in the season and cutting the rack off or another hunter finding it and cutting the rack off.

[wooly]

That's a pretty safe assumption shawn. I carry a hacksaw in my pac for just that occaision while shedding.

[Lever action]

I ocasionally find dead deer on our property.One spring turkey season I found 2 skeletal remains of bucks and assumed they were shot and lost during deer season.

[fasteddie]

I have walked a lot of woods, fields and gullies in 46 years of deer hunting and have only come across 4 dead deer .................

[WNYBuckHunter]

I have found plenty of dead deer during the season, while shed hunting, scouting, etc. Some had been shot, some car hit and others were just dead. They do die naturally you know, its not always a bullet, car or arrow that bring them down.

[WNY Bowhunter]

I find at least a couple of unrecovered deer every year during gun season. This season I found a dead 10-pt (just a skull) during bowseason and a doe. During gun I came across a 4-pt., a buttonbuck and another buck with his head sawed off. Don't think it was poached (wasn't there on Nov. 19), rather, someone found it first and took the rack. During my shed hunting ventures this past spring I found over 20 dead deer from January to mid-April...

[132 eight pointer]

Any guesses as to what percent of dead deer die from non-human related causes in N.Y. ? Any biologists on here ?

[WNYBuckHunter]

It doesnt take a biologist to figure that out. You can get a good guestimate by looking at what the DEC figures the deer population to be, then look at the estimated mortality rate and subtract out the number of deer harvested by hunters and it will give you a round about figure. I would be surprised if humans kill more than mother nature.