Thanks for the education. As I said, I've never seen it before on a deer. When I rabbit hunted, we used to always wait until after the first hard frost. I guess that's why I'd never seen it.
As far as ditching the deer, maybe it was a waste, but at the time, I had to make a decision. Not knowing what I had, I didn't want to feed it to anybody, especially me. As you know, nothing goes to waste in the wild. The foxes, coyotes, and birds need to eat too. As far as losing the venison, we have generous bag limits here. We're allowed unlimited does and 4 bucks. I don't have to worry about filling the freezer. I look at it as if I shot her and couldn't find her. Unfortunately, that happens sometimes. I still checked her in, so I now have my first doe under my belt. We have to kill 2 does before we're allowed to take our second buck. I'm more pissed about blowing up 2 broad heads and going through all of the work involved.
