Large buck found dead with interesting find

[Tnwakeboarder]

Was out with my brother today doing some metal detecting and came across this bruiser. Has the largest bases I've seen on a TN deer. Both sides are gnarly and 6.25"+. 18" wide inside. 11 scorable points.Tines have been chewed down a bit. Has a tad bit of velvet on the tip of one main beam. Guessing it died in the fall of 2013 judging by remains.

Here is the interesting part. After overlooking it a bit more we noticed some metal in the skull directly between the brow tines. Looked to small to be a large caliber round. We dug it out and it turned out to be a pellet from a pellet gun!! I don't think this is what killed the buck judging by how deep it was buried in the skull. What is weird is that someone was able to come in contact with this deer at close enough range with a pellet gun.

 

[Tennessee Lead]

Cool find!


Sent from my iPhone that I ain't smart enough to use with tapatalker

 

[Dbllunger]

bizzare and cool. I would love to know how that happened.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Nice skull

 

[AllOutdoors]

Nice rack and cool find!

Some people are idiots!
Pellet gun? Really? Idgit.

Sent from this smart thingamajig using tapatalk.

 

[MUP]

Wow. Never heard of anything like it! But, like was said, what an idiot to do that in the first place!

 

[HuntFish714]

Sweet find, stinks the tines are chewed up or wouldve made a good euro

 

[CDUB]

The quantity and quality of wildlife in TN could be some of the best in the country if we could just weed out some of the morons roaming our woods.....

 

[rem270]

The quantity and quality of wildlife in TN could be some of the best in the country if we could just weed out some of the morons roaming our woods.....

What he said.

Someone probably came across it while squirrel hunting with a pellet gun.

Cool find. I'd like to know if that could've eventually lead to its death?

 

[BSK]

I'd like to know if that could've eventually lead to its death?

If the pellet penetrated the brain-case, then potentially yes (infection).

I've killed two deer in TN that had broken legs. In both cases, I dug a .22 bullet out of the bone at the point of the break. Stupid people...

 

[landman]

Could have been shot by kids after he died
not really knowing how big he was or carrying
Could explain how he got shoot between the
eyes if they walked right up to him dead

 

[Tnwakeboarder]

This buck was found in a briar patch that's super thick and on private property but we all know private doesn't mean that. I just can't imagine anyone that does any type of hunting finding this deer and then leaving it. It scored 138" even being chewed on. I would guess him to be close to 150"

 

[catman529]

Wow, that is crazy

Wonder if they thought it would actually kill him, lol


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[Wobblyshot1]

Must have been pretty close range for it to penetrate hide and bury up in skull bone like that.

 

[easy45]

Heck of a find

 

[Shed Hunter]

Cool find. Pellets travel fairly quickly and straight nowadays and people are incredibly dumb so I'm not surprised somebody attempted to kill it with a pellet.

 

[mathews338]

very nice find!

 

[Bone Collector]

Cool!

 

[plinker22]

I'm with landman. I thought it was probably shot after the face by some kid. With my BB gun, I shot anything I thought would be cool to shoot and yet not get my butt tanned by my daddy.

Live animals were a no no with the BB gun (especially old windows, the basketball backboard and the well house door, but those are way OT).

 

[TheRealSpurhunter]

WHen I had my small farm, the only neighbor I had told me she shot deer with her pelet gun all the time when she caught them in the garden. I never really thought much of it, assuming a standard pellet gun couldn't kill a deer.
What surprises me is every time something like this is found, and especially a deer with a rack cut off, people assume its poachers or worse. Im not saying shooting a buck in the head with a pellet gun is not wrong, but we have NO idea what really happened here.
VERY cool find though!

 

[muddyhunter]

Cool

 

[Boone 58]

Very interesting! sad ending to a nice trophy!

 

[7mm08]

That pellet could have set up an infection that definitely could have killed the buck.

 

[vabuckbuster]

My guess would be someone shot him when he was young. It's a whole lot easier to get close to a yearling buck.

 

[Gravey]

Cool find and would be interesting to know what the real story is behind the pellet and his death.

 

[SMarshall]

Very cool find!

 

[BSK]

Taking a close look at the pictures posted, the bone around the pellet impact displays no sign of healing at all. Either the pellet hit occurred very close to the time of the buck's death, or after his death. I would need to see the inside of the skull to tell if the pellet may have played a role in the bucks death. If the pellet fractured the inside of the skull again the brain itself, bleeding in the brain may have been the cause of death. If infection from the pellet was the cause of the death, the bone of the skull (on the inside) will display the classic "Swiss cheese" look caused by infection.

 

[Tnwakeboarder]

Taking a close look at the pictures posted, the bone around the pellet impact displays no sign of healing at all. Either the pellet hit occurred very close to the time of the buck's death, or after his death. I would need to see the inside of the skull to tell if the pellet may have played a role in the bucks death. If the pellet fractured the inside of the skull again the brain itself, bleeding in the brain may have been the cause of death. If infection from the pellet was the cause of the death, the bone of the skull (on the inside) will display the classic "Swiss cheese" look caused by infection.

In the picture where the pellet is still in the skull we had already picked at it a bit. When we found it the skull around the impact wasn't splintered or chipped at all. There was just the silver circle/bottom of pellet visible and sitting level with skull cap. It was like the skull grew up to the sides of the pellet but didn't heal over. It was in there very solid. It took my brothers wood carving tools dig it out without destroying the skull. There is just a crater in the skull cap but it didn't go all the way through.

We are thinking it may have been shot earlier in life...?

Is there a way to inspect the inside of the skull without ripping it appart?

 

[BSK]

That makes much more sense Tnwakeboarder. I would be EXTREMELY surprised if the pellet caused the buck's death. And if it had been in there for a long time (a year or more), the skull would have grown completely over the pellet. I would say it was in there for no more than a couple months, if that. I've seen a deer shot in the forehead with an arrow, and after just a year, the heal process had almost completely encased the entire broadhead--sunk half-way into the skull--in a big lump of bone.

You can look up through the hole at the base of the skull, where the spinal cord came out.

 

[Snake]

:super: