Pretty horrific leg wound on a deer…

A buddy of mine posted this photo to Facebook of a deer that showed up on his camera. He’s got a history with this buck and knows for a fact it has been shot twice this season. He’s been shot once in the shoulder and was shot in the back leg by a member of a hunting club that neighbors him. I’ve cropped the photo to hide any personal info and the result is a fairly pixelated picture, but look at how nasty that leg wound is. I’m sure he’ll go septic and die of infection soon, but I honestly cannot believe that buck is still walking. Anybody here think there’s any chance the pictured wound is survivable?

 

No, not survivable. But nothing goes to waste in the wild, so no worries.

 

I agree that the deer is going to die. There’s an ongoing debate on his Facebook post about the survivability of that wound. That’s the reason I posed that question at the end of my post.

 

I started to agree that yes, he’s going to die from sepsis in due time, but then I reread your post. That shot AND ONE IN THE SHOULDER?! He may just be immortal.

 

You'll have to pardon me in that I have a real problem with the "hunters"
who did this -- to start with -- and then didn't finish it to end with.

 

Boy I hate to see that, he’s in for a rough time with that wound.

That said, I have seen a few 3 legged coyotes in my years of predator hunting.

All of them were missing front legs though and they all seemed quite healthy and lived productive lives up to the point they were taken.

That backleg on the above pictured deer is extremely bad and will probably mean his demise.

I shot this hog several years ago and it had a severe wound to its lower jaw.



It appears that someone tried for a head shot (or had the lead wrong on a running shot) and snapped a round through its lower jaw breaking it, knocking out teeth on both sides of the jaw and severing the tongue.


When I shot him I was standing on the dam (high side) of a stock tank and he was knee deep in the tank bobbing his head up and down in water trying to drink with that big a$$ed hole in his jaw.

I was about 50 yards away and could see he was skinny and all drawn up but I couldn’t see the wound in his jaw but I knew there was something “wrong” with him.

I eyeballed him for a few minutes through the 2x scope on my rifle and finally decided whatever was wrong with him, he had to go.

I sent a 300 grain .458 diameter JHP right between his eyes and put him out of his misery.

When I walked up on him he stank all to be damned (much worse than your standard wild pig stink) as all that mortified tissue in his face had turned exceptionally bad.

I drug him out of the tank and left him to feed the coyotes and the buzzards as the infection (in my mind) had left what little meat was left on him spoiled.

I fear that deer is in for very hard and miserable time with his leg and that is too bad.

 

No pardon needed. The folks doing the shooting are no friends of mine and I don’t disagree with you.

 

I have to agree with others that that is not a survivable wound and would probably lead me to take "extreme" measures to put him down as quickly and painlessly as possible.

 

I would want to go out and finish the job.

 

Coyotes may get to him before he dies of infection. I imagine it would be hard to escape coyotes with that kind of a leg wound and his infection would be a dinner bell for coyotes.

 

Yeah. He’s been trying to finish the job since he got that picture.

 

FWIW, I have seen many deer become victim to the wire fence, many do not survive. No telling how many millions they successfully jump over every hour across the country though.

That would have been a good time to shoot the fellow though.

 

Deer are pretty tough. There was a doe that used to hang out on my property that was missing the lower part of her foreleg. She also had a huge scar on her shoulder and ribs. I saw her for 3 or 4 seasons with a new set of twins each year.

 

This deer needs to be put down. If nobody shoots it again and kills it or if the coyotes don't catch it and kill it.
It will die a slow and miserable death.
In my mind it is the jerks that think they can successfully take running shots at game animals.
Some one on here wrote on another thread that someone they know can constantly take neck shots at running deer and take head shots on running rabbits with a 22.
I call BS on that.
This is what happens with shooting at running game.
I have seen animals shot like this deer and pig. Wounded and having to deal with the pain and infection.
Sometimes healing up other times dieing a slow horrible death.
The same tings happens trying to shoot animals at long distance. Some guys couldn't hit a barn if they were standing inside with the doors closed.

I'd like to see a survey of how many shots people shoot at deer and the actual harvest rate.
And what the actual wounded rate is.

 

Quite a number of quadrupeds can be thought of as 3-legged-with-a-spare, meaning they get along fine missing a leg if they survive the initial shock and infection. Definitely not that uncommon to see dogs and cats missing a limb. It doesn't work out for anything heavy like horses and such, but would not surprise me if deer could live a darned long time on 3 if food is readily available and predator numbers low in the region. That's not excusing the situation.

 

I would agree if it was a clean amputation, but with that much surface area and that much exposed bone, I just don’t see that wound being survivable in the wild.

 

It likely isn't, but crazy things do happen.