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.

We killed some deer last year in IA with nasty infected wounds, so gave the DNR a call. They told us we could leave them near the rd and they'd collect them, just to tag and remove the head and we'd be ok legally. A small wound is one thing, but large wounds oozing puss and smelling dead are a different story.

Laughing.... Yeah I'll be sure to give them a call especially if maybe they let me keep the head from a deer I legally killed, tagged and packed out. I look at this like hitting a deer with a vehicle, legally if it's still alive a person is not allowed to dispatch of it. Just like in that situation I don't need to call a game warden to see what the right thing to do is.
I've decided the best thing to do is to cut it up cook it and feed it to the dogs, judging by the other stuff they'll eat I'm sure the can stomach it. I don't have to worry about putting my family at risk and the deer gets used, plus they'll love me for it

Well that's the smart thing to do. They write tons of tickets everyyear to folks that legally kill, tag and pack out an animal, only to turn around and dump the major edible portions of meat.
That's why for ions the Wyo G&F regs have had the little diddy's about wanton destruction and abandonment of game. Might of been killed legal but what happened afterwards wasn't.It's also why FWS and others cooperated in road blocks and check stations on east bound I80 in Nebraska.
Alot of the advice you got from folks that haven't been around here would of surely got you into some deep doodoo. And always keep in mind the powers that be do read these forums...
One of the bigboys out of the office in Sheridan is a longtime friend and sometimes hunting companion. I know he has written some pretty major fines for just the sort of thing you were being advised to do. I've also been with him when we lost a half day of pheasant hunting chasing down call in's of abandoned geese...
Don't feel like the lone stranger, ask some of the folks that have had their game sampled and the test comes back positive CWD. They got to keep the horns were told to destroy or not consume the meat, but there was no recompense to their license.

Just to add my $0.02, I would not consume the meat. By the way, nice shot!

Don't know who you are and don't much care, but I have a degree in Natural Resources, have worked for the USFS, and have several connections inside the MO Dept of Conservation. I was speaking on what my opinion/experience would be if I was faced with such a decision in Missouri.

I have hunted Wyoming for Mule Deer several years over the pass next to Wilson and have found more piss poor de-boning jobs on elk/deer and several black bear that were shot and left lay (sheep herders) than you can shake a stick at. So to give me your "holier than thou" attitude is uncalled for. If you would like to discuss further, please PM me.

Keith

Not much to discuss Keith, read the Wy regs. Then keep in mind the deer in question here would also qualify as a trophy muledeer, and the legislature passed a unique set of punishment for those that don't pay heed.
A very simple phone call to the Game and Fish can save a big boat load of trouble when faced with this situation.

You aren't from around these parts are you. I know Ranch13 and he is not blowing smoke. You may have found poorly boned out carcases...but not everyone gets caught. You have no clue as to how far a Wyoming Warden will go to seek justice....and rightfully so. BTW Ranch is not the "Holier than thou type" just a stand up guy.

I was last in WY in 2010, pointed out the fact to the Game an Fish Officals that came through on the last day that we had not seen a fawn/calf from either elk/deer/moose in the 5 days we were there", but were in constant contact with at least two wolf groups the whole time we were there. During our discussion, I told them of a location of a bull elk that had only the horns/back strap/back hams removed and in the middle of a branch. They had a single shot 410 and were more concerned if we had seen an pine grouse "stupid chickens" as they called them. I know this is not an indicator of all of the game enforcement officals that are in the state, but didn't leave a real positive image of what was available that day. The fine lady that called me three nights in a row doing a survey on why I had not retuned to WY to hunt Mule Deer was suprised when I told her that I would not return until they took care of the wolf issue that had destroyed what I considered one of the most desirable trophey areas WY had to offer. I explained to the nice lady on the third night that I would only return to her fine state to hunt pronghorn with my boys.

meat should be fine....cook it well done if you want to be on the safe side

Antler tine in the kiester if ya ask me...

Nice buck. Congrats. I think you'll be fine on the 3 quarters you go off him.