Not What You Want To Find Shed Hunting

[davidhelmly]

I had some time to shed hunt one day this week and was just enjoying the nice weather, I had found one side of a spike when I found something that you never want to find... it was the buck we had named F8, I had an encounter with him Halloween 2016 and Cindy and I had been chasing him for the last 2 seasons. He disappeared off of camera in late Oct last year and we were afraid maybe he was dead but didn't know for sure until this week, at least now we know. I have no clue what killed him, his entire skeleton was all right there together and hadn't been spread by coyotes so I looked it over and didn't see anything obvious, we will never know for sure what killed him but at least his rack was in good shape and hadn't been chewed and we can close the story on him.

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[Jeff.Cronic]

Glad you found him. But dang that was a stud!

 

[mike1225]

Sad but now you know. The bucks up here are still holding onto their horns.

 

[Miguel Cervantes]

Hopefully he has a good number of offspring out there to take his place in the near future.

 

[elfiii]

He was handsome for sure David. You always hate to see one like that go down but it's part of the circle of life. I'm guessing you probably have other "usual suspects" that will take his place in the pecking order and that's a good thing.

 

[Silver Britches]

Yeah, what a shame to find any deer like that. He was a great looking deer. Get a metal detector and scan around the spot you found him. May find something.

 

[Killdee]

Dang what a shame.

 

[Nicodemus]

David, have the lower ends of the ribs been clipped off, and did it look like the carcass had been covered or partially covered when it was fresh?

 

[releehweoj]

David, have the lower ends of the ribs been clipped off, and did it look like the carcass had been covered or partially covered when it was fresh?

Nic, curious as to what that would indicate.

 

[Silver Britches]

Nic, curious as to what that would indicate.

Bobcats will cover their kill, or anything they find to come back and feed on it.

 

[livetohunt]

David, nice buck...Probably a good chance neighbors got a bullet in him and never found him..

 

[kmckinnie]

How close was he to a road. May of got hit. If close.

 

[Browning Slayer]

Nic, curious as to what that would indicate.

I'm guessing a mountain lion.. Cats love to eat the organs first (heart, lungs, & liver) and go in through the ribs missing the stomach which they pull out and don't eat... Cats are not messy and the carcass is usually in one piece.

Nice buck David. Sucks to find one like that!

 

[Mr Bya Lungshot]

I seen a large buck like that walking slow one week only to have my hunting partner find the same buck dead nearby the next week.
No holes or nothing. We assumed the bigger buck in there got ahold of him since it was near the rut time. Now I still wonder about that deer. I even whistled at it but it ignored it and walked away. 100 yards or less away and dead. Should have had that deer tested. This was 10 years ago.

 

[Triple C]

David...That'll make a beautiful euro mount. It would be pretty cool to frame a trail cam pic of him and hang below the mount. All deer cause a heart thump in the stand but mature bucks are in a class of their own. Glad you found him intact.

 

[davidhelmly]

He was handsome for sure David. You always hate to see one like that go down but it's part of the circle of life. I'm guessing you probably have other "usual suspects" that will take his place in the pecking order and that's a good thing.

You're right about the circle of life elfiii!
There was another older, smaller racked buck that use to bully this buck to no end and one of our members killed him last year so I'm thinking there is plenty of room for a new buck or three to move in and take up residence, I'm really curious how having both of these older bucks gone will change our herd dynamics this season.

David, have the lower ends of the ribs been clipped off, and did it look like the carcass had been covered or partially covered when it was fresh?

Nic, I noticed what looked like the last rib on one side was possibly chewed a little on the end but honestly didn't look hard for chewing. There was a little trash around the carcass but it was in a creek bottom that floods so I just chalked it up to that. Are you thinking bobcat maybe, we do see a lot of them.

 

[elfiii]

David, have the lower ends of the ribs been clipped off, and did it look like the carcass had been covered or partially covered when it was fresh?

Nic, I noticed what looked like the last rib on one side was possibly chewed a little on the end but honestly didn't look hard for chewing. There was a little trash around the carcass but it was in a creek bottom that floods so I just chalked it up to that. Are you thinking bobcat maybe, we do see a lot of them.

In the first pic it looks like that last rib has been clipped off short.

 

[davidhelmly]

How close was he to a road. May of got hit. If close.

He was probably 3/4 of a mile from the nearest county road.

I seen a large buck like that walking slow one week only to have my hunting partner find the same buck dead nearby the next week.
No holes or nothing. We assumed the bigger buck in there got ahold of him since it was near the rut time. Now I still wonder about that deer. I even whistled at it but it ignored it and walked away. 100 yards or less away and dead. Should have had that deer tested. This was 10 years ago.

It definitely makes you wonder doesn't it...

David...That'll make a beautiful euro mount. It would be pretty cool to frame a trail cam pic of him and hang below the mount. All deer cause a heart thump in the stand but mature bucks are in a class of their own. Glad you found him intact.

That's a great idea, I will probably add him to all the sheds and deadhead bucks in our camp house that we've found over the years.

 

[davidhelmly]

In the first pic it looks like that last rib has been clipped off short.

Yep that's the one that I noticed that could have been chewed, hard to tell

 

[Jim Boyd]

Man, David - so sorry to read about this.

He was a stud.