Dead head you may of killed

[Addicting]

Had a discussion similar to this the other day and thought it was interesting.

You took a ethical shot but ended up not recovering it. Rancher insists you continue to hunt and remove a excess animal. They have to reduce herd population due to over objective and crop damage.

You comply and kill a raghorn. Next year you find the dead head of the bull you shot. What do you do?

 

[Southern Elk]

Clean it up and put it on my wall.

 

[seeth07]

Clean it up and put it on my wall.

yes, but mount the horns upside down as a reminder that it was a mistake

 

[Addicting]

I am going to recover it and try and find a home for it at a sportsman’s club.

 

[nhenry]

I swore I had a good, clean shot on a buck last season, but I couldn't find any trace of blood or it for a few hours. So I just decided that if it were dead in a creek somewhere, it'd be going back to the earth.

 

[Addicting]

yes, but mount the horns upside down as a reminder that it was a mistake

Was it actually a mistake? That was the crux of the discussion. Crazy stuff happens that can’t be explained and you can’t really know how, why, or when the bull died.

 

[2rocky]

Killed my BIL's "wounded and lost" bull the next season rutting in the same drainage. He was hit high and had the scar all healed up behind his withers. He killed another bull a couple days later but i think that gave him closure...

My "lost deer" are seared into my memory. But I also remember that Nature is not clean and elegant in how animals die as we can be. In your case I'd clean up the antlers but it would be in the garage or outside.

 

[nrpate05]

I probably would've looked for a cow if the rancher wanted to reduce the herd size. That aside, I'd clean it up and keep it as a reminder of sorts. Or give it to the landowner.

 

[BTripp86]

Similar thing happened to me when I drew an Iowa muzzeloader deer tag a few years ago. Shot a great buck at last light but due to the smoke etc, couldn't tell his reaction. We found good blood and tracked that night until we found his bed then backed out until the next day. At that point I realized I had to have hit him back, dark liver blood. The next day followed meandering blood in the snow for close to a half mile until we reached property we couldn't go on. Next spring my friend who owned the place found the skull in a thicket near the property line. He must have circled back and died later. He gave me the skull but it just sits in the garage. I may hang it up, may not. It's like a bad reminder to me of a misplaced shot I guess.

 

[Mallardsx2]

If it wasn’t chewed up bad I would just go to montana and shoot the biggest forkey I could find and use that cape to mount my big buck dead head.

Might even pop me a doe while I’m there. Seen myself do it! Lol

 

[mtmuley]

Friend of mine lost an archery bull. He cut that tag. A couple years later found the dead head. He left it there. mtmuley

 

[LukeDuke]

Found this one last season. He was pretty ripe. Let the landowner know in case he had another hunter that was looking for it. I’ll go by that spot in a few weeks and see if it’s still there. Hopefully the pissed off bear is gone

 

[44hunter45]

Rule number one, do not make difficult ethical decisions without collecting the ivories first.