Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Passed on a half racked buck earlier, and then...

Passed on a half racked buck earlier, and then...walking out, by chance, I came upon his broken half!

I told my son that now since I have the broken off half, if he comes by again, I can shoot him.

That’s a pretty good half!

That's pretty wild.

I have only found on piece of a 3" tine. It was on a trail in my woods in the spring time. I am sure a coyote played with it like a dog with a bone cause it was not there for long. I left it there and sure enough , it was gone in a week or so.

Nice one! What bow set up are you shooting?

Now that’s pretty cool. Hope ya find the other half of the package again. Good luck! 😎

Nice find!

Man, gunnut, I gotta bunch of 'em.

But this year I've almost exclusively been hunting with the Hoyt RX-7 Ultra.

One of my sons had troubles with his Carbon Hoyt (I think its an RX-5) so I gave him my Mathews VXR 31.5. I've bought 3 bows since, the RX-7, PSE Mach 34, and Bowtech Carbon One.

All nice bows, but quite frankly, none of them as accurate, smooth, and consistent as the VXR.

That is too bad. Looks like a real good one.
I killed a half “racked” buck a few years ago.
He stepped out from behind a bunch of bushes and vines with the good side towards me. Didn’t know he was missing a side till I got to him. Must of been fighting because he had a knot on his head.
Kind of cool but I would have liked to find the other half. 😎

That’s pretty cool - what are the chances. 😀

Yep, Mathews knows how to do it!
👍

My initial thought too. Time to buy a lottery ticket.

Not quite the same but, a coworker's father shot one long ago and it went down instantly. As he was walking up to it, it stood up again and so he shot it again; that finished it. When he looked at the rack, there was a .30 cal hole through on if the beams. Strange stuff happens sometimes.

Coworker brought it for everyone to see and I gave him a bullet to put in the hole for effect; it looked pretty cool. (no, not a cartridge, just the bullet)

For a few years we had some “half racks” on our lease but they weren’t broken, they only had one antler. The right antler was normal but there wasn’t even a pedicle on the left. It took some time but we apparently got-’em all . . .at least we haven’t seen any for a few years.

The place I hunt has poor soil and most of the bucks have small mass. Many of them break off parts of their antlers fighting.

Yep, I shot one like that. Skinned out the head and the one side looked like a doe skull

My first antlered deer, or half-antlered, was taken IIRC in 1983 on a farm just outside of Gettysburg. Didn’t know it when I shot him as he was broadside when I spotted him and I shot him before he moved. The missing side was broken off at the pedicle.

I was sitting in a ladder stand right beside Marsh Creek, which bisected the property. Just after first light someone shot on the other side pretty close by. Thought my hunt was over before it started, but a few minutes later I heard one snort on my side and spotted my deer about 200 yards away, staring down towards where the shot had been fired, and I cracked him, left-handed because he was directly to my right. He jumped the fence between us and ran towards me. I racked the bolt, switched hands, and turned to my left, panicked a bit thinking I’d missed. Took a running shot at about 50 yards and missed, but he flopped anyway.

I climbed down and went over and dressed him; wasn’t upset about the missing side at all. Then I heard something in the creek and walked over to check it out and found another hunter with a nearly identical buck, missing the other side of his rack. I suspect maybe those two were “acquainted”, possibly brothers.

My first buck was a half rack and I shot him as quickly and proudly as anyone on here would shoot a 200” buck today. Still have the horns on a plaque, and remember that day as well as any other in my life.


Nice find and I’m sure a good taxidermist could come up with an interesting mount idea with the broken piece if you were so inclined.

Injury, genetics, nutrition?

We cull’em.

DF