Retained bullets in animals, specifically deer....

Quite a few years ago I shot a small 6 pointer buck and then I took him home to butcher. Hung him up in the basement and started to pull the hide. Barely got it past the shoulders and I had to go barf. This one had been shot with a .22 in the front shoulder and was walking rotten dead. Lost the whole slimey mess, no grilled chops that year. Now I am a whole lot more careful to take a good sniff. With a split season we used to have the second weekend there would be some wounded ones around so we all got a lot smarter about that.
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Those short seasons get you in more ways than one. By the time you get a replacement tag, it is game over. Booo.
 
Tod,
Back in the mid 80's I shot a doe on Nantucket Island,when I went to retrieve her I noticed that one of her front legs was swollen immensley,I tagged her and the bioligist weighed her and aged her,she was 11years old at 113 pounds. An old deer and big for the island! Anyway when I dressed her out her front leg where it was swollen above the ankle had 3 oo-buck pellets in it and healed over for what seemed to have been for years.Another time I shot a small doe on the island 70pnds and when I retrieved her she had an easton 125 grn arrow sticking out of the back of her head just below the ear and I never seen it till I got close to her,I still have the arrow,that was 20 years ago!
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Lots of buck in deer it sounds, it is legal in MA I know.
 
The biggest buck I ever shot was back in 1980 in NW Arkansas while in college (Go Hogs!). It was an old deer and when we skinned him out he was full of healed up #6 shot in his chest, front of his neck and under his jaw. All we could figure is that he walked up on a squirrel hunter that was sitting down. It was obvious that it had occurred long ago as there was no indication in the hide, just very well healed up pellets. Cool stories. Trip.
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Cool stories indeed, keep them coming.
 
I've put a couple of deer over the years that were crippled from bad shots.
One with a hide full of #6 shot.
About 10 years ago my dad shot a 6 pt with one side dangling by the skin with a skull fracture.
Had a friend shoot one two years ago with an arrow through both eyes.

Tod,
If you post a photo of that jaw I can probably age it for you.
A top view should do it but a profile might help.
Billy
 
I'd really like to hear more about the swans. What was the focus of your research? We went and shot them last year, one of the better hunts I've done. Such a neat bird. If I lived there, I'd go decoy them everyday.
 
A few years ago a friend asked me to use my doe tag to help cull a herd of yarded up doe. There was deep snow (for our area) and the crop fields all had a hard glaze of ice on them. I was hunting a creek bottom where the deer could still dig down for food. About a half hour after day light the "doe train" showed up right on schedule like I was told it would. My friend had asked that if I saw the doe "with the arrow in her head" to try to take that one. As the line of 27 (to my best count) doe snaked past I was trying to pick out a good cull deer when the doe with an arrow in her head showed up in the middle of the line. I drew back and made a clean 15 yard shot on her with the bow. She staggered a few steps and was down. It took a while for the rest of them to clear out. They really didn't know what happened.

When I got down and checked her out there was a full length arrow coming out from just below the rear of her ear opening and the tip of the broadhead could be felt under the skin top center of her muzzle where the bone stops. It had completely traveled the sinus area without hitting the optic nerve or brain. She was completely healthy and no sign of infection or weight loss! With her laying on her side it was clear to see that someone had tried a hard quartering away shot with her head down feeding and had hit a little far front.

I had the skull tied to my shed but something/someone dragged it off, so no pictures:(

Gene
 
A few years ago a friend asked me to use my doe tag to help cull a herd of yarded up doe. There was deep snow (for our area) and the crop fields all had a hard glaze of ice on them. I was hunting a creek bottom where the deer could still dig down for food. About a half hour after day light the "doe train" showed up right on schedule like I was told it would. My friend had asked that if I saw the doe "with the arrow in her head" to try to take that one. As the line of 27 (to my best count) doe snaked past I was trying to pick out a good cull deer when the doe with an arrow in her head showed up in the middle of the line. I drew back and made a clean 15 yard shot on her with the bow. She staggered a few steps and was down. It took a while for the rest of them to clear out. They really didn't know what happened.

When I got down and checked her out there was a full length arrow coming out from just below the rear of her ear opening and the tip of the broadhead could be felt under the skin top center of her muzzle where the bone stops. It had completely traveled the sinus area without hitting the optic nerve or brain. She was completely healthy and no sign of infection or weight loss! With her laying on her side it was clear to see that someone had tried a hard quartering away shot with her head down feeding and had hit a little far front.

I had the skull tied to my shed but something/someone dragged it off, so no pictures:(

Gene
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Wow... it must be a bit weird seeing a deer walking around with an arrow in the head...
 
i was hog hunting in south carolina couple years back , i shot a 150 lb boar that we found out later had a three blade broad head in is its vital area and the wound was healed over and theorgans appeared to be intact ... what a tough animal . also had a doe i shot about 10 years ago that had a plastic ring over one split hooves that was there from when it was a fawn , the lower sect of the hoof was deformed from it
 
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