Buck Out on 3rd Strike!

Back in late October a big bodied buck with tall antlers came close to my ground blind, close enough to arrow cleanly. I let him pass, as the antlers were inside the ears.

After the opportunity passed i realized this guy was a shooter. Rack was like a jack pine–straight up and heavy.

He came strolling by a different stand about three weeks later during the gun season. Had an almost clear shot at about 80 yds. with the muzzleloader. I swear he smiled when the slug made a fatal hit on the limb of the red oak he was skulking behind.

Yesterday this 3 1/2 yr. old must have winded me. I was wearing a new masking scent “Idiot from the City”. He materialized 110 yds. away, smiling.

I put the crosshairs right on that white patch below his chin and squeezed. That’s where the bullet hit. And that’s where he dropped.

The rack is nothing special, gnarly and missing a G-1 and brow tine on one side. But it was palmated to a degree…8 3/4 diameter at widest spot on one antler. remaining tines were about 12 inches…and rack was 16 inches tall.

Certainly no trophy. But a special deer. Down on the 3rd strike on my 51st day in the deer woods.

Because this deer was harvested in the HRZ in Wisconsin, they chopped off his head when the deer was checked in.

I fail to see the wisdom in chopping off the head of every deer. The DNR knows CWD is alive and well in Rock County. So what’s the point ?

Then it dawned on me as I looked at Icabod Crane’s worst nightmare hanging in the shed. This is a subliminal message from the Wisconsin DNR ! It’s a meat statue, a big, fat headless entity just like the DNR!

Ted how come they chopped his head off, is this just a statement being made or is it to protect the hunter from diseased meat. This baffels me because i can’t find a reason other than to protect the hunter, is this the reason why, i don’t know much about CWD. I just reread your story and is it because they test the brain for this disease and ya i agree with you, why every deer? Can this disease be transfered by touching or does the meat have to be consumed. Is it in all the tissue or just the brain or brain area or do they know forsure? Was he a wallhanger, any buck of decent size with spaded tines is a canadate for a hanger too me if hes halfway decent.

Mossydan:
As i understand it there hasn’t been a SINGLE documented case of CWD transfer from deer to humans.
The DNR cuts the head off of every deer, simply because they believe they have this inherent right as the almighty Wisconsin DNR.
If you want to hunt deer in special zones, here’s the deal. We keep the head.
I think this is overkill in a problem they already know to exist. I think keeping all the heads is an attempt to perpetrate a problem of the DNR’s own making.
The Sheeple of Wisconsin have always accepted the DNR as omnipotent, all knowing benevolent dictators. Until they stand up and say “Enough!” outrageous, dubious programs like cutting the head off of every deer will continue.
Remember in the Movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” where the government created a phony disease scare to keep people away from where the alien spacecraft was going to land?
I believe they got the inspiration for perpetuating the CWD “crisis” from this movie or a similar thought process.
Honestly, I think they screwed this whole CWD thing up from the git-go and figure if their illogical course continues long enough, sooner or later they will be vindicated….but that’s just me talkin’.

Ya ted, i know what your saying, we got the same power trip down here with the local city government,,,its just because they say so they have the power, over kill and shootem 10 times until they’re dead forsure kinda mentality. Don’t they realize they tip the balance of normal thought and it makes them look like total morons,,,just because they can and because they think its important kind of thinking, not because there not taking any chances. Who in the heck would want to go to Wisconsin to hunt from out of state knowing thier mounts may be taken and theres nothing they can do about it. Its just blows me away that they don’t think along the lines of how will the public take this kind of thinking in this procedure. I know they think we’ll test every head we can get ahold of to make sure to the best of our knowledge thats this problem is being taken care of. Im not running them down its just that taking every head over emphasizes the disease and makes people panic and not hunt which makes the problem worse in thinning out the deer so the disease can’t progress. Lifes has its chances in general. It sounds like a panic situation in the dnr too me instead of a responsible train of thought to investigate and try to solve a problem. Its panic overkill instead of a responsible and stable well thought system of averages or tests. Why don’t they just ask the hunters to donate the perticular part they need to help them. If its the brain thier after then it would only take a couple of minutes and a bone saw to take it out with no harm done to the mount and most guys wouldn’t care. It takes this kind of process to make everyone happy, the dnr, hunter and the public in general and it should be done this way or a similar way to keep everyone happy. Why wouldn’t they want to do it this way, could they think this way is overkill? I think it solves more problems this way then the way thier doing it now, my 2 cents.

And forgot to add one more thing, it makes them look smart too.

Amen,Brother!!!