I guess I am missing the point of the "unfortunate" posts...

What is unfortunate about letting nature take its course? I see this as very fortunate they found the deer so they can show off the antlers as a trophy of God's creation.

Is it unfortunate someone didn't get to shoot it? I don't understand.

Edit to above ^^^^


What an awesome buck and glad you guys were able to recover his antlers so you can show them off for the trophy they are. Glad you were able to get him recovered and he didn't hole up and die out where you never would have known.

You can call me greedy if you want, but yes I think it's unfortunate that he was found bloated and floating in a stock tank and not killed by me...

8pt, if you had a hunt lined up with the HF owners to go after this guy, then yes I will agree it was very unfortunate he was found dead in a tank....but unless there were a bunch of guys lined up for a stab at this beast...I don't know.

Lot of good meat just went bye bye


Part of nature though few years back my old place got hit with EHD real bad. Sad deal. Lots of wasted non human utilized animals.

flounder?

I think its unfortunate that the cause of death is unknown, the meat wasn't able to be eaten and that an awesome animal like that died most likely a painful death and was found floating in a pond. i would have said the same for any animal really, just makes it worse that it was a world class trophy.

How old was that buck?

^^^This

Hope you guys have some idea of age and can confirm it with dental age or something. Just a remarkable animal

I take a different perspective I guess, this kind of thing happens all the time in the wild and at least it wasn't half eaten to death by coyotes or something. To me, it owuld be unfortunate to see this guy limping along with three coyotes chasing him or biting his rump off rather than dead floating in a tank. My opinion only...we are all entitled to our own, just looking for a different perspective, and I get what you all are saying especially about the wasted meat.

Hopefully he spread his genes in past years and one of his offspring can take his place. Somebody sure had a strong stomach to be able to cut the antlers off the skull. Not something I could have done.

X2

He was 6 years old. These things happen a lot in nature and most of the time we are wondering where that big buck we are after disappeared to this is the truth of that matter most of the time. I am glad the horns were recovered and I don't know any hunter that would not have the stomach to cut these horns off to keep, bloated deer or not. The only unfortunate thing about this situation is that he could not pass his genes on a little longer. It's almost a miracle to grow a deer like this and if anyone wants to prove me wrong on that I ask them to show me a pic of one running around. It takes a lot of hard work, time, money and luck to have an animal like this and then not to take the offeres that were thrown out there to shoot the deer and try to let him breed and live. I know my pops was pretty upset to see this happen but it happens in nature all the time. Really only one word to really sum it all up, sucks. There is one big typical gene being passed around, first the big typical 8, 188, that was shot, now this one and now there is a 3 year old that is getting there.

What a magnificent animal.

Please dont invite him too this thread

Wow, What a toad! Sad he had to go that way.... Have you posted pics of him from previous years? I would love to see the age/horn progression of that deer.

The Cause of death is generally Blue Tongue in that situation. The tongue swells up and they go to water. Generally see them dead next to or near the water. I have seen this quite of few times.

Daum shame...

+1 on any pics that show age progression!

+1+1

Him dying in the water really doesn't narrow down what killed him. Nearly any wounded or sick deer will go to water. Cows will do the same, don't know why but they like to die near water.

What a stud of a whitetail! Sad end but Nature can be that way. I would be excited knowing that I had genetics like that getting passed around.

That deer WOWS me every time I look at him and that has been numerous times.