Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting WY Muley with a Surprise

Last day of the season stumbled into this buck. I Was in an area thinking I might find a whitetail when I jumped this buck in some head high sage brush. He bounded off but made the mistake of stopping to look back at about 150yds. With no rest available I had no choice but to shoot offhand. At the shot he stumbled a few steps and fell. I guess all the offhand practice with the 22 this summer paid off, as that is by far the farthest offhand shot I've felt comfortable taking.


When I walked up to him I could see a massive wound on his rear ham. Initially I thought someone had wounded him with a rifle.




Closer inspection showed that the wound was at least a few weeks old. It was somewhat scabbed had a fowl odor and there were maggots in some of it. No idea what caused it.



Closer inspection showed that the wound was at least a few weeks old. It was somewhat scabbed had a fowl odor and there were maggots in some of it. No idea what caused it.

I took the other three quarters off of him but I'm not sure if I should keep them or not? They seem to be okay, but I'm not sure. Is it safe to eat?

Details:
LH Rifles INC.
.260
120 ttsx
Leupold vx-3 3.5-10
He was slightly quartering to, bullet entered just in front of near shoulder and exited through the off shoulder. Found 1 petal in the exit wound,the rest exited. Traveled 10 yds after the shot.

Looks like an old shot with a small caliber rifle.


ddj

Does look like an old rifle wound, someone must have clipped him. Nice buck though, glad you got him.

A few years ago a buddy of mine killed a buck in Idaho that had a nasty gore wound through a ham that went clear though, took off a testicle, and punctured the guts. The wounds were festered and stunk to high heaven, but the buck never showed any sign of being injured prior to being shot. He was chasing does like there was no tomorrow. We spoke to the local game warden after he killed it and he said no way would he eat and no way they would require him to salvage the meat, stating it likely had infection throughout it.

I wouldn't chance it with a wound like that.

Wow, that would be a surprise. yeah it does look like a gun shot wound, I was looking at wolf kills last night on the web & there were a few carcasses that looked real similar to that; had the hindquarters bitten out of it

I wouldn't eat it...not worth the risk.

I shot a buck with a 165gr Nosler Ballistic Tip with my 30.06 in a similar spot resulting with a nearly identical wound. Had to shoot him twice to kill him as the first wasn't lethal just a mess. Haven't used BT's since on big game.

If he's still moving when you shot him (sounds like he was), it should be ok. I think the risk is gang-green, but if it had infected the entire set of meat, I doubt he would be moving thyrough the woods too well.

It goes against my moral hunting fiber to not eat this deer, but with 4 elk in the freezer I certainly don't need the meat. I guess I can feel better knowing I did him a favor, I doubt he would have survived the winter.

With that wound, there's no way I would eat the meat with an empty freezer. Morals, which I share with you, are one thing. Getting sick off tainted meat is another. Not only did he have to get over a major injury, he had to battle a pretty nasty infection as well. More than likely you prevented him from a slow, miserable death.

Don't beat yourself up. Unfortunately these things happen from time to time.

I feel the same way about letting the meat go to waste, but I wouldn't take a chance with you and your families health. It is one of those unfortunate things that happens. He would have had a tough winter ahead of him had you not seen him.

Either way you decide to go 204guys, nobody could question you. It's a tough call I hope I never have to make. Your morals should be intact regardless...

223AI by the looks of it. That's why I use a 22/250.


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A few years ago, a friend of mine wounded (lower leg) a nice 6pt buck early in the week. We went back for it on Sat. the same week and I ended up shooting it. I cut it up for him after hanging it a few days and gave him the entire lot of cuts. Meat looked fine, smelled fine, everything fine, but his family barfed after eating it. He thought maybe a touch of the flu, so ate some more. They all barfed again. He tossed it. No one barfed after that.

Taken with a 22/250 & 70gr Speers BTW.

Before you got to dumping that deers meat in the trash, you probably better contact the local game warden, just so there's no confusion later and you find yourself charged with abandoning game meat.

What Ranch13 says...some have no sense of humor.

Yeah he may even replace the tag for you...

I sure wouldn't eat that though!

Your Life, Your Choice.

If it were me, kick some leaves on it and say a blessing and move on. Our local game warden will replace a tag on such an instance. You did this deer a favor.

204, that's a cool buck. Congrats. And like you, I think I'd have to at least give the meat a go before tossing all of it.
Although not from the infected area. <grins>

That will add wanton destruction to the abandonment of game, you'll loose your rifle , the vehicle you drove to the hunting area, a batch of cash, and probably at least 3 years of hunting and fishing priviledges, plus attorney's fee's and court costs.
Turn it into the Game and Fish, and don't worry about any charges being filed. You won't get another license but at least you'll probably get to keep the antlers.