Prolly this!

Do you really have to tag it with your own tag??? We find dead deer in Kansas almost every year. We call the GW and he either gives us a tag for it or sends the sheriff over with a tag.

I agree the yote are what have been eating it. But, you will probably never know who exactly it died. I bet it died late, late in the night or the yotes would have had it completely goneD!

Odd. I'm not one for stiring the pot, but 2 things itch my noggin. Why hide the faces in the pics and then admit to tagging the deer?

Is this true? Is the ranch high fence? Because if not, the chances are much higher for being hit by an automobile at night than killed by predation. Especially a mature adult deer. Of course, there are about 5 times as many deer taken a year in Texas by hunters than there are vehicle collisions. This is during the daylight hours of course; but at night those statistics reverse.

The predation mortality percentages on adult deer in Texas are negligible compared to hunter and roadway mortality.

However, if there's a Chupacabra loose in the area, all bets are off that sucker killed him shore!

Some hunter probably left his Allsups Burrito laying around while filling feeder, and that poor old buck ate the WHOLE THING!

Had a serious blow-out, and even the coyotes and buzzards wouldn't touch that thing. Just sayin'

.

And my LO won't let us shoot coyotes cause his 15 year old son wants to try and hunt them.

Ok guys, ill be the one to own up to finding this buck, I've read thru 3 pages of mostly negativity surrounding this find and most pointing the finger as a gut shot deer etc etc. I hunted last Thursday evening, with a bow I might add, I saw this buck at 5:45 pm at around 100 yrds. He went in to the brush and never got any closer, I went back to the same tree the following morning saw a few deer got down and headed to eat breakfast. On the way out of the ranch in a huge open grass pasture I noticed a few buzzards circling, I got closer and noticed the horns standing above the grass. The deer looked to have been dead for only a few hours. At first I assumed coyetes were to blame until I saw the claw marks inside the rib cage, and also a huge cut under his left front leg. If you have any questions ill gladly answer them thanks and hopefully this will clarify things for all that were concerned.

Ok let's get this straight right now...I just saw this post thanks to a friend and want to clear this up. First off I am the owner of the land where this deer was FOUND. Located 20 miles north of meridian on 174. Second I have been watching this deer for 7 years and I WOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONLY ONE to hunt him. No one GUT SHOT or even tried to hunt him. He was ran down by mountain lions and his heart ruptured. The individual that found him is my best friend and he to thought it was yotes UNTIL you look at the rib cage pic and notice the claw marks through the bones...yotes and bobcats aren't strong/big enough to so that. It did throw me when I didn't see anything on the neck but after talking to some experts that's what they do when they are training their young. They run the prey dwn and since this one died of a heart attack there was no need to crush the wind pipe. 2 days before he was found a lion was sight 2 miles from the ranch. And I have personally seen tracks along my creek. This deer on the hoof weighed aprx. 180 pounds so there's no way anything but a BIG CAT could have done this. Also when this deer was found the blood was still wet. It was a fresh kill. It is a real shame that I couldn't have killed him but he was a old smart buck. He was 27.5 inside with 12" 2's. 2 years ago was his best yr. having 20 score able points with a 10" drop. I found both sheds laying 2' from each other. So to the guy that does not think its real...it dam sure is.

wow!

I personally know Reaper Crew and was out at his ranch in September to look at getting some clay launchers working for him. He's a stand up guy and after meeting him you'd know he doesn't bs and if he said that's what happened, then that's what happened. This ranch is very nice and has some great bucks on it, I even got to see this buck's shed, incredible deer. It's a shame he went out like this.

How did you figure he had a heart attack?

it is not a high fence ranch.. its a few miles down the road from my good friends fathers ranch... this site and forum has lost a ton of respect in my book.

oh geez...

One yote couldnt do it....but ten could

maybe he is a Deer doctor.....but seriuouly good question

Now I don't think that is fair to say. Initially all that was presented at first was a picture with the persons face cut out and a background that looks like it may be landscaped, stated it was a friend of friend making it sound like you did not know this person, and stated no mountain lions or tracks seen. You asked "what do you guys think". They simply answered what they thought based on the information given. With your opening question and picture, you have to admit there was lots of room for spectulation.

What do I think. Not sure. But with the new information given sounds like that rules out a poacher. But for a cat? The number and spacing of the cuts in the rib cage seems odd for a lion paw. I want to ask myself why would a big cat claw the inside of the rib cage with it's paw like that. After the kill they use their teeth to eat, not their paws. And I do know almost always, Both Bobcats and Lions will cache their kill and return later. There is plenty of grass to cache that kill. It if had time to eat half of it, I would have expected it to cover the rest with grass or at least move it to cover. I like to leave a game camera on a carcass and see what comes/returns. Would have been interesting to see on this one.

I'm sticking with hit by a car that night then eaten by coyotes, bobcats, skunks, buzzards and whatever else found it. A bobcat could definitely make claw marks like that and so could a coyote. It doesn't take much to cut through the rib meat.

Told y'all it was a cat...Ha! I don't live far from meridian and I KNOW that big cats roam these areas. Just because you don't see em doesn't mean they aren't there!

But still, what a shame, that's an awesome buck.

i'd say they ate well! sad way to see a great buck go.. but that's life!

I don't think anyone has questioned whether there are lions in Bosque county. Bosque County is included in TPWD's mountain lion mortality report. I am sure not all mountain lion kills fit the mould, but I know lions like bobcats usually drag the kill or found carcass away from out in the open. And they cache the kill and cover it up. The report below goes on to explain they normally eat from the shoulder area first and work their way back, not the way in the picture. And the report also explains how lions kill at the neck.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wild/species/mlion/

Could it be a mountain lion still, sure. But even with the new clues given, it just don't "quack like a duck" to me.

I looked real hard a pic 2, and I can't see where the claws 'cut thru the bone' ?? Even a possum can 'scratch thru rib meat' while dragging the entrails out.

'broken ribs' on open side indicate vehicle collision to me more than anything else - not even a big cat is going to bother 'chewing thru bone' when all the meat/protein is easily accessible on rear-quarters,neck, etc, let alone a pack of 'yotes or bobcat(s).

crazy........he was a nice buck....

Please explain this to us. And Reaper if you were the "ONLY ONE" that could have hunted him, what was Skeeter doing in a tree trying to get a shot at him.

And why did the original picture show the man's face but since has been cut out?