My cousin's father in law shot a decent eight at our place Saturday morning that had an arrow stuck in its back. Looks like someone shot from a tree stand and the buck was quartering away. It was a bit high and magaged to stick in the backstrap/backbone. Processor said it had been there for quite some time and that there was was a pretty severe infection, he advised the meat be thrown out.
Just curious to see if anyone knows of a friend or hunter who had one get away. Our place is off of 287 and FM 860.

sucks, but glad the deer was finally humanely taken.

No info on the arrow? iirc back when I bow hunted, that was a rule, not sure though.

Nope, no info on the arrow itself. No one bowhunts our place, so it must have been near by. Or poachers I suppose

I remember Colorado requiring it, but don't remember a Texas regulation requiring the info to be on the arrow.


Glad someone took the animal, sucks to lose the meat around the wound but still plenty of meat to be had. Tough dang animals

Processor told him it was best to throw it all out. Apparently a pretty bad infection had set in, lymph nodes were jacked as well

Ouch...that sucks. If the infection had spread, that is definitely the best option. Hate to see a deer go to waste because of a poor shot. It happens, but man it sucks.

We have had 2 deer stuck by bow hunters on our place and both have showed back up on camera. Arrow is no longer in them, but looks like they are healthy and no infection.

deer will live through stuff like that a lot of times. Good lookin buck, sorry to lose the meat!

Glad he got him. Sucks on the meat

In the 80's and early 90s you had to have name and address marked on your arrows in Texas. Not sure when the regulation went away but it is no longer a requirement.


Sorry about the meat on that buck, have had to throw away a 200+ lb buck for same reason but from a gun shot in and out the shoulder but never got in the chest cavity. Happens with bows and guns

Yeah it happens. It was a good kill, that buck would have died anyways and it would not have been quick.

Do you still have to use a deer tag when something like this happens?

Have to? I am not sure about that. But at the time we believed that the animal would still be able to be eaten, se we tagged it in the field.
One thing I did not mention was that there was a great story of how he and his daughter worked tgether to take the buck, so the hunt was very memorable for both of them. Obvious that he wanted the meat, but the loss of it did not deminish the overall experience.

It's a same that you had to waste a tag and not get any meat. But at least you put a suffering animal out of its misery.

Back in the 70's I know of one case where a deer was taken away from a hunter at the Ft Hood check in station because the meat was infected. In that case they gave him a Game Wardens possession tag like they use when you hit a deer with a car. I don't know if they still do that.