Big game are tough with a will to survive

[Stay Sharp]

Im fortunate to be able to take a lot of archery game animals and for years I did custom butchering (started doing it as a kid back on the farm with my father) so Ive disassembled a lot of deer love several decades. The stuff I find in them in amazing and yet they show no outward sign of injury.

This deer was harvested with a bow a Friend in South Eastern Wisconsin. He made a great hit and the deer piled up inside of 50 yards.

He brought to deer to me for processing. I skinned it for a shoulder mount, stopping right behind the ears.

The buck dressed out at 175 pounds and has a good layer of fat on it’s rump. Every indication was that this was a normal, healthy deer. I returned the head to my friend for mounting. After the taxidermist capped the skull, he cut the skull plate to remove the antlers. As he finished the cut, he hit metal. My friend got the skull and antlers back and cleaned them and brought them to show me what was inside the brain of this deer. The hide was completely healed and did not give away that there was an injury. The threaded portion of the head had snapped off.

The deer had been shot in a prior season with a Wasp Hammer broadhead. It entered the brain but did not kill the deer. It also passed through the hinge of the jaw and had grown over with bone and prevented the law from opening all but the smallest amount.This deer was able to open his mouth just enough to eat and live.

The bone had grown over the broadhead and through the vent in the blade and bridged the gap.

The upper left arrow shows how much hinge movement was allowed in the jaw, The opening and closing of the mouth had worn a curved area away

The shot appears to have taken from the ground and not an elevated stand and looks to be nearly perfectly broadside.

 

[Stay Sharp]

A few years back I killed a buck with my bow and while deboning the hind quarters I was hitting a lot of tough and fibrous meat that was yellowish in color.

I stripped all the meat and saw a very deformed bone. I took the bone to the sink to further clean it to inspect it and a broadhead blade fell into the sink. I cleaned the bones from both back legs. This is what they looked like.

Because a broadhead blade fell out of the crease in the bone while cleaning, I suspected that other parts of the broadhead were inside the bone so I took the bones to work to do a CT scan of them to see if broadhead parts were in the bone. These are the images and there was no other parts of the broadhead inside the bone.

This is a deer Taken by another bowhunter that I processed for him. The deer dropped and turn to run and his bear razorhead caught the buck in front of the ear.

I cleaned up the skull for him. The broadhed is forever trapped in the skull.

While Im on the subject, here are some other deer that survived and the wounds were discovered during processing.

Deer are tough and have an amazing will to live.

This is an amazing example.

https://cdn0.wideopenspaces.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/splint-final-630x339.jpg

https://66.media.tumblr.com/9ee910115c0e76fa607c3a5101942ea3/tumblr_n5lnindnCr1tn3ub0o1_500.jpg

 

[memtb]

Nice buck! All animals are tough, but Whitetails seem to have a tenacity for life far greater than their size and demeanor would indicate! memtb

 

[midwesterncrosshair]

I find the hunters that released those arrow to be more amazing

 

[memtb]

I find the hunters that released those arrow to be more amazing

Sometimes it’s the hunter.....sometimes the animal “jumps the string”! Whitetails are notorious for that, especially if “not” using a bow with very fast arrow speed! memtb

 

[Stay Sharp]

I find the hunters that released those arrow to be more amazing

Stuff happens in the real world. Not every shot is a double lung pass through. I just happen to have a lot of deer pass through my shop so I get to see a lot of them.

As a kid I butchered a really big buck with my dad and back then the thing was to use a bandsaw to cuts steaks and such and I recall in that buck we found 2 broadheads and 2 .22 cal rounds in that buck that this elderly woman killed with a 12 ga. slug gun.

 

[midwesterncrosshair]

Sometimes it’s the hunter.....sometimes the animal “jumps the string”!

Then they are shooting to far.... that’s my opinion

I’ll eat my words when I shoot a deer in the head. I understand a shoulder, spine, or gut shot as a mistake.

 

[JFish]

That is amazing how tough those animals are. Did your buddy end up doing the skin mount or did he leave the skull exposed for an interesting conversation piece?

 

[Stay Sharp]

That is amazing how tough those animals are. Did your buddy end up doing the skin mount or did he leave the skull exposed for an interesting conversation piece?

He did both. He saved the lower part of the skull with the broadhead in it (not needed for the shoulder mount) and had the rack/skull portion used in the shoulder mount.

 

[Sask hunter]

Pretty neat! I have pulled a small calibre bullet out of a bear and lots of bird shot out of coyotes. Got a few coyotes that have only had 3 legs

 

[EYJONAS!]

Wow that's some wild stuff I've seen a couple broadheads inside bulls before and some bullets but nothing like that. Thanks for sharing. I'd say that's your best thread yet.

 

[The Hedgehog]

I once pulled a muzzy broadhead out of a bull elks spine while dressing it. Twice I’ve found pieces of carbon arrows inside elk I’ve shot. This one was a surprise. I cleaned a skull for a friend’s kid. They didn’t notice anything abnormal about the buck, and didn’t mention if it was blind. But it must have been...

the only evidence was the replaceable broadhead blade still inside its eye socket. Frontal head shot.

 

[sbhooper]

Nice buck! All animals are tough, but Whitetails seem to have a tenacity for life far greater than their size and demeanor would indicate! memtb

I have shot a small dump truck load of white tails and mulies, both. I think, based on what I have seen, if whitetails were as large as elk, Houston, we would have a problem!

 

[The Hedgehog]

First buck I killed as a kid had a whole ass full of #6 shot underneath it’s hide. 1983.

 

[sbhooper]

First buck I killed as a kid had a whole ass full of #6 shot underneath it’s hide. 1983.

View attachment 124562

Last year, a friend of mine that is from Missouri, went back home to hunt deer. He shot a big buck that was staggering across the field. Some dumb ass had shot him full of bird shot and that poor deer was full of maggots stem to stern. He had them oozing out of his mouth, even. Sickening. He was on his death march. People that do that, should be killed slowly.

 

[Stay Sharp]

I forgot about this one I processed.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

First Javelina I ever shot had Birdshot imbeded in his skull and a .22 slug overgrown into his lower jaw.
The skull is right next to me as I sit here.Also had a bashed in skull that didn't slow him down.
( can't get pic to load) 〽

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Talk about a headache! How did that first one even eat?! Survival is one of the strongest instincts in all animals. Truly amazing.

 

[LuketheDog]

This past September we bumped into a guy from Wisconsin who told us about a huge bull his buddy had shot and lost the previous fall just across the canyon. The next day when my buddy killed his huge bull just across that same canyon, we found this above the bull's spine, fully encased in scar tissue and still sharp.

 

[Sask hunter]

First buck I killed as a kid had a whole ass full of #6 shot underneath it’s hide. 1983.

View attachment 124562

Holy crap what a way to start!!