This may b e the wrong forum, but I have seen several deer with their heads cut off on the side of the road. Is this GW doing this now? Just some people taking buck heads? poachers? chupacabra? This is on interstate and FM roads.

seen it happen for years ... I am pretty sure it is not legal without permission from the GW

I just posted on the East Texas thread that I saw one south of Menard. GW didn't know anything about it.

Generally I think it’s people taking heads off road kill.

Yes, been going on forever. I might even know someone who's done it themselves......

Been more than one set of rattling horns lopped off on the side of the road too.

Never understood wanting a set of antlers off a road kill. I have enough antlers off buck that Ior my family have taken that are just gathering dust.

I could have sworn I read that the game wardens were cutting heads off roadkill and testing for CWD?

Saw one in joco monday myself . And i recall an article about the game warden doing testing as well a year or so ago

They are, it’s both. Has to be pretty fresh though.

My guess is that it is maybe 70/30 with the GW being the 30%.

Exactly right PMK
And it doesn't matter if you are the one who hit it and it destroyed your vehicle causing thousands in damage. lol

I've seen that in every part of the state I've ever hunted at

some that would have filled up a lot of freezer bags

Couple of weeks ago I saw one with the head cut off across from Lonestar Guns on the service road. I’ve seen several this season.

I saw one yesterday morning outside of Floresville. It looked like somebody took a sawsall to it.

Been going on forever! Nothing new!

Some of them are spray painted orange. I figured those are the work of the GW.

What difference would it make? Deer hit by a car and is laying dead. I have stopped and cut off the hind quarters to feed to my dogs. Only ones it might hurt is the buzzards.

Unfortunately Texas does have a road kill salvage law. Kind of a shame. Not like we are underpopulated

Combination of rednecks and CWD testing.

What's wrong with rednecks? Oh wait....

A couple years ago there was a very big buck killed close by. I called the warden and told him I was going to take the antlers because there were people slowing down to check the deer out. One guy slowed and yelled something at me, not sure what. Warden said I could not take them, when I asked why he said because people will run over a deer to get the antlers. I asked if he really believed that someone would smash their $50k truck for $2 worth of bone? He said yes and he came and cut the head off himself.

Saw one last week right outside of Boyd city limit.

CWD test deer with be or supposed to be spray painted with orange paint. Lot of locals will cut the head off and take it to the biologist also and not spray paint them. Watched a guy this week cut the antlers off of a buck that was marked as a CWD collected deer.

I saw some deer in a ditch near where I bird hunt one night. Next morning two of them were dead in the same ditch. I called the GW suspecting poaching. He said they had been road killed, and that one was being picked up by the guy who hit, and I was welcome to have the other one if I wanted. I took the meat off the side that hadn’t been hit, and drug the rest into the bushes. I guess it depends on which GW you talk to.