Our friend Dusty was out in the timber looking for shed antlers and found this little buck that has been cleaned by coyotes and other varmints. We have a lot of hunting pressure around us. There are two outfitters selling hunts, and deer hunters are all around our timber through the deer seasons. We saw more than a dozen impressive sets of antlers on social media that were harvested around us. This deer was probably killed by one of those hunters. The shooter should have contacted us and collected it, but did not. Maybe the shooter was not competent to track a wounded deer, maybe the shooter wasn't brave enough to contact us and ask permission to retrieve it. Maybe he shot this deer, saw a better one, and then shot and tagged the second one. Maybe he shot when this little deer was in line with the one he was aiming at. Who knows? It's an aggravation. The outfitters charge well up into four figures for a successful deer hunt, and there have been many trophy quality racks taken around us. This little guy will not mature to be one of those trophies in the future, so sloppy hunting is not just bothering us, it will be hurting the outfitters. The heavy pressure* around our island of habitat for trophy bucks is not sustainable, and I am sure we will be seeing fewer big racks in the next few years.
*We are skeptical about the ethics of some of the hunting that goes on around us. We commonly hear rifle shots at night during both bow and gun seasons while we are out with the dogs. Deer carcasses discarded off of bridges are big red flags.
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