I'm going to watch somebody else butcher this buck...

[AJMD429]

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Since it looks like someone else had already started the butchering, I figured I'd set up a trail cam and watch.

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Wish I'd walked that path the day before...

[ollogger]

Doc so what killed the deer? some one hit it with a car or a bullet?
so far to me it looks like an eagle or vultres were having supper, coyotes would have had it ripped apart
keep us posted



ollogger

[wvfarrier]

Looks like vultures got at it....or Taco Bell

[AJMD429]

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No wounds or broken bones that I could see, but the left antler is broken off at the skull. It was sort of tangled in a five strand high tensile fence, but not really in the sense that there were no wires twisted around him and no scratches on the limbs. Frothy bloody nasal mucus frozen on the snout.

Big healthy looking dude and lots of meat wasted (I guess coyotes and birds and coons and possums and bugs and worms will be happy). Hope wasn't confused by chronic wasting disease. If I had time with working 75 hour weeks and needing firewood and having car repair issues and so on, doubt I'll bother loading him to do all that.

[44shooter]

Sure it didn’t break its neck or brain itself on a tree? Doesn’t look like a result of a fight

[AJMD429]

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I'll be interested to see the skeleton as it's exposed...

[AmBraCol]

First impression was a reminder of a button buck I killed way back when. First white tail I took with Grandpa's 30-30. It was antlerless only season and I saw three deer, one of them with a bloody hindquarter. I shot that one and the other two took off. Got up and found it was a button buck that someone had shot about 5 pounds of meat off his hindquarter with a 7mm Magnum or other some such howitzer. Then they didn't track him, which wasn't a hard job as there was fresh snow and an obvious blood trail. But I digress. there's no bleeding around the wound so it's definitely postmortem. Did you roll him over to see if there's any wound on the other side?

[ywaltzucanrknrl]

Doesn't look emaciated like the deer around here that die from Chronic Wasting. Most of them look like a skeleton before they die.

If he thaws enough if would be easy to tell if his neck was broke by moving it around.

I had a Mule Deer die in our yard last year. Of course the dogs were trying to eat their share so it wasn't in pristine shape. It looked very healthy. When I looked it over I rotated her head and I could feel the pop. She had tried to run below the branches on a Blue Spruce and then either hit the tree behind it or the fence and broke her neck.

I was sick and didn't feel well enough to salvage it, so I called the G&F. The Warden verified it had a broken neck and hauled it off.

Thanks for posting, it will be interesting to see if you find out how it died.

[marlinman93]

Unless I knew how a deer died, and when it died, I'd never salvage meat from a deer I had no idea how or when it died. Just doesn't sound like anything I'd chance eating.

[AJMD429]

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Four helpers so far ..

Two on the day shift...

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...and two on the night shift...

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... I'm presuming the Coyote Brothers will come along soon to help...

[AJMD429]

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Mr. Baldy came to help...

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[ollogger]

Really thought buy now there would be nothing left, must be plenty of others to feed on
Thank you!


ollogger

[AJMD429]

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Once the Coyote family arrives, it usually moves fast...j

[GunnyMack]

Wow if that deer was around here the White wing vultures and Black vultures would have had that gone in a couple days! Once they find a dead critter it's a feeding frenzy!