Here’s a dandy

[MrTom]

A friend took this opening day archery buck this morning. Still in velvet. SE Minnesota.

 

[SDK]

Wow! That’s a beautiful buck….

 

[illinoishunter]

Impressive looking deer. That would be a mounter here for sure. Can't wait for shotgun and muzzleloader season to start.

 

[deermanok]

Congrats to your friend. Beautiful buck.

 

[MrTom]

Andy, in the picture, shot the deer on Saturday evening but they had trouble finding it. My grandson went down to the farm on Sunday morning to help look for it and he found it.

Thin neck yet and full velvet. Many of the deer in this area have clean bone already. The picture doesn't show it, but the deer had a fairly heavy body.

 

[Hanshi]

That's a very fine buck and will look impressive when mounted. The meat was salvageable, right??

 

[MrTom]

That's a very fine buck and will look impressive when mounted. The meat was salvageable, right??

I haven't asked the grandson whether it was still viable or not. Evening and night lows were in the upper 40's. He did not elaborate on the hit either. Knowing the area and terrain where the deer was shot, I'm wondering if the hit wasn't as good as planned, hence the deer getting out of sight with little or no blood or the blood just petered out while tracking.

I just sent the kid a message asking these things.

 

[jd24.5.48]

Very nice buck! I shot a nice 8pt several years ago with a crossbow and didn't find him until the next morning and the meat was fine! That was around 12-14 hours after the shot and the temperature was in the mid 40s. It was a good double lung shot. Hopefully they were able to keep the meat!

 

[MrTom]

The kid says it was a very high double lung and partial liver hit. Hardly any blood. The animal was still ok for keeping the meat, which is a good thing.