Odd deer injury (with pics)

[RGK]

This deer was harvested with a bow on Dec. 30th by Jay Trudell in South Eastern Wisconsin. Jay made a great hit and the deer piled up inside of 50 yards.

On New Years Eve, Jay brought to deer to me for processing. I skinned it for a shoulder mount, stopping right behind the ear.



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 Jay 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. Jay got the skull and antlers back and cleaned them and brought them to be 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.

[RGK]

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.









I placed one of my aging jaws next to the skull to show how the jaw hinge should look.



Here you can see the opposite healthy side



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. I can't understand why someone would aim there unless they were taking a neck shot. I think that would have been a poor choice as well.

[wapiti792]

WOW! I pulled one from an eye socket one time on a deer that had vision out of one eye. How did he ever get enough calories to live with that amount of jaw clearance. ONE TOUGH HOMBRE!

[SOS]

Amazing.

[ishiwannabe]

Thats a nice deer. Amazing how well they can heal, their determination to live just astounds me.
I would like to hope a shot like that was a kid that was shaking, not just an unethical hunter. Either way, Im sure that deer felt some pain, glad your buddy got him.
One thought. Those antlers look pretty similar(each side), I would think if it was from last year the one opposite would be deformed somehow? Could it be older than a year?

[LC]

Thats incredible! Thanks for taking the time to take photos and posting! It proves alot of things to me. One, deer and or God's animals are one tuff surviving son of guns! Their will to live is amazing. Second I'll not even go there. Again thanks for posting.

[Tree man]

RGK, So what you are telling us is that Jay outwitted a brain damaged deer.    :p    
That is the kind of advantage I need also.

[Bob Macioch]

Whitetails are truly amazing!

[RGK]

Yes, I have already began giving him grief about shooting a mentally defective deer that suffered a lobotomy.      

Originally posted by Tree man:
RGK, So what you are telling us is that Jay outwitted a brain damaged deer.     :p    
That is the kind of advantage I need also.

[TimZeigler]

RGK, thanks for posting.  They were some great pictures, and it goes to prove how amazing these animals truly are.  Tim

[Gatekeeper]

RGK

Thanks for sharing with us.

Wow it is amazing that he lived. The pain he must have been in... dang. Its not as though he could have taken a few days off and given the injury a rest, he was in a lot of pain.

Amazing!

Anybody what to guess where the shooter was looking?

[SouthMDShooter]

WOW! thats incredible

[Shawnee Archer]

Thanks for sharing the info.

[NorthShoreLB]

Wow, the poor bugger must have being in some serious pain for quite some times.

[BradLantz]

I wonder if it was a shot that just didn't hit where it was meant to ? Few people try head shots on deer, its more believable to me it was maybe a running shot went bad, or at least thats what I'd like to believe  :(

Very interesting, thanks for the pictures

[Brian Krebs]

I can't believe that I am the only one that has at the moment of releasing the arrow- looked at the rack; and have seen their arrow fly right through the rack.
  :confused:  
Either that; or the shooter looked at the eye of the deer when he shot.


In the olden days; people used to brag about how they shot a deer in the head with a bow; thinking that was a good shot; and an even better story... but I thought we were past that idiocy.
 I would lean more towards either the deer moving; or the person looking at the deers head in the last second before releasing the arrow...

 :rolleyes:  

Nice photo job- I am hoping it ends up in some bowhunter ed classes..    

[gilf]

Amazing story and amazing pics, thanks for taking the time and effort to tell us about it.

Nature really is amazing in it's determination to survive against all the odds.

[LEOPARD]

That's amazing! Really interesting to see how animals can adapt and heal with things like this.

[killinstuff]

A good two blade would have killed it.

[bamboo]

could have been a deflected arrow or any number of things ! don't judge!you could be next!!any thing can happen when you drop that string!!