icsg0007@cs.montana.edu (05/17/91)
Just Call Me "Lucky" It seems that rec.hunting needs a little shot in the arm seeing as how there was only one article posted Monday. I had this article laying around and decided that I would try to sneak it by the moderator to give you folks something to read. This took place in Sept of '87. At the time I was a hand for a ranch in western Montana. It being Fall I would slip out of the bunkhouse, with my bow, just before daybreak most mornings and match my wits against the wily whitetail. It was quite cool when daylight caught me short of where I had planned on being. My plan was to beat the whitetails to a small saddle that they would pass through on their way to their bedding grounds, and lay in ambush for them. I felt confident in my plan and abilities. I had studied the critters movements out of the alfalfa fields in the mornings and had practiced a lot with my bow. The problem was that I was a little too late. So I just planned to try to intercept them before the saddle. I really had to go slow to keep quite because it was so dry in the woods. I heard a noise in the direction that I expected the deer to be, but it did not sound like a deer walking. I finally caught a glimpse through the timber at what appeared a black angus calf at forty yards or so. I thought "Great. That will spoil things." Then as I got a better look, I realized that it was a black bear slowly working it's way towards the direction that I was going. "Neat!", I thought. "It's not everyday that I see a bear. Hey! Wouldn't that be neat if I could stick him. I don't have a chance though. It's too far and I will never be able to close the gap without him hearing me." Next thing that I knew, the bear started pawing around next to a few dead trees that were laying on the ground. Then he lied down and rolled around a little before being still. It was apparent that he was planning on taking a nap. What an opportunity. It took about ten minutes to sneak within 23 yards of him. To say the least, I was excited. Every time that he moved my heart sank. I'm positive that he had been asleep when he sat up and stuck his nose up in the air for a sniff. I had the wind though and he soon was snoozing again. Of course thoughts went through my head as to what he would do when/if I stuck him. I felt assured that he wouldn't have any idea what was going on and would probably high tail it in the direction that he was headed when he had bedded down. But there was that question, "What if he comes this way?" I assured myself that if that were the case that I would remain perfectly still by a tree and he would never see me. Their eyesight is not the best in the world and I was camoued for deer. So I drew back and woke him up. He took off covering about 50 yds in five seconds while I covered 75 yds in two seconds (just kidding about my running). I cautiously followed to keep him in sight as long as possible in case I hadn't connected well and was going to have to track him. But he curled up, let out a few low growls, (that's when I set the new land speed record) and expired. When I got up the courage to approach him he was dead. I had made a good shot, since I had taken the time to tie my bow arm to a tree prior to my release to hold it still. The five blade Razorback entered the anterior portion of the chest cavity and he bled to death in about 20 seconds. A very exciting morning for me but not too exciting for him. Heck he was 13 yrs old and needed culling. He would never have had a skull big enough to score well. He needed removed from the gene pool. Of course I analyzed all of this before deciding to take the shot, ha. It was a beautiful six foot boar with a chocolate brown coat with golden colored guard hairs on his back. But actually, the first thing that I noticed as I got close to him was a deep dent in his forehead. It was large enough that I could lay the distal joint of my thumb in it. I had read that adult boars would sometimes kill boar cubs if the sow wasn't protective of them. I assumed that it must have been an old scar from when he was a cub and a boar had about got him. After skinning out the head I noticed the severity of the indentation. There was a hole in the anterior part of the frontal bones allowing a view of the turbinals in the upper nasal cavity. He could have, and had, at one time breathed through the top of his head. After cleaning the skull I noticed that the bones, mostly the frontal bone, posterior to the orbit a few inches had been fractured into many pieces and had fused back together. Embedded in the bone were several small pieces of lead! Part of the mystery solved. I asked several people, including experts, for their opinions on what happened. Most of them, myself included, think that the bullet had entered through the top and exited behind the eye. (I wouldn't be surprised if most of the bullet ricocheted off.) One of the foremost authorities believes that the bear was uphill from the person who shot him and that it was a small caliber gun. Who knows? It would be interesting to hear their story though. That poor bear must have had a headache for a while! I've done quite a bit of hunting, a lot according to my wife, and this is still my most cherished trophy and memories. The stalk took long enough to really let the imagination and adrenalin run. ______________________________________________________________________________ Steve White icsg0007@caesar.cs.montana.edu stuck in Bozeman and it's great, when the waters clear. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>>--------------------->
tas@sat.datapoint.com (Tom Stewart) (05/18/91)
In article <1991May17.071508.22908@doug.cae.wisc.edu> icsg0007@cs.montana.edu writes: > Just Call Me "Lucky" .. >It was a beautiful six foot boar with a chocolate brown coat with >golden colored guard hairs on his back. But actually, the first thing >that I noticed as I got close to him was a deep dent in his forehead. .. > ...After cleaning the >skull I noticed that the bones, mostly the frontal bone, posterior to >the orbit a few inches had been fractured into many pieces and had >fused back together. Embedded in the bone were several small pieces of >lead! Part of the mystery solved. .. >______________________________________________________________________________ >Steve White icsg0007@caesar.cs.montana.edu > stuck in Bozeman and it's great, when the waters clear. >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >>>---------------------> After reading this story, I wonder how many other animals are shot but don't die. I suspect a good many deer are killed each year that aren't found by the hunter, but how many animals survive wounds like this? If you have experience with similar old wounds in animals, why not share them? P.S. The only old wound I've seen on an animal is one that was probably the result of getting hit by a car, not from an actual hunting incident. I imagine a good many animals survive collisions with cars, since I've had a couple of hits myself where the deer jumps up and runs off. --- Tom Stewart -- archmaster of irritation and useless information I am irritated! ---- Lt. Worf ST:TNG
marko@hutch (Mark O'Shea) (05/21/91)
In article <1991May18.084458.28916@doug.cae.wisc.edu> tas@sat.datapoint.com (Tom Stewart) writes: > >If you have experience with similar old wounds in animals, why not share >them? Not a good idea, guys. The people in rec.animal.lovers.hunter.haters.activists will likely use it as ammo against us. Regards Mark O'Shea marko@ijf1.intel.com
lawsonj@groupw.cns.vt.edu (John Lawson) (05/28/91)
My Dad has had a couple of experiences with game he has bagged having old wounds. One was his first white-tail buck, a fine, old 12 pointer. I had been watching the old boy for about a month prior to the season and hadn't mentioned it to anyone. My dad and I set out well before daylight on opening morning and I just couldn't keep my "secret" any longer. I told him about the buck and where I had seen him traveling to his bedding area. We parted and headed for our stands, mine was already picked out, his was not. Well for my trouble of telling him about the buck, he took a stand a little further up the trail the buck was traveling. That was the last time I told him any secrets. :-) He killed the buck shortly after daylight and when we skinned him we found one buckshot pellet and one small caliber rifle bullet lodged under his skin. Apparently he had survived both wounds well because they were both completely healed and fatty tissue had formed around both of them. The other was a gobbler he took with a bow just a few years ago. When he saw the turkey, he thought it's gate was a little funny. He didn't pay too much attention to it and arrowed that turkey while he wasn't looking. We met back at his house around lunchtime and I looked the bird over. A fine turkey it was with about a 7 inch beard, only something was wrong. Upon examining it a little closer, I discovered that this turkey's right leg had been broken at some time and had healed again. Only when it healed, it had grown back very crooked and curved way out to the right making it's leg about 2 inches shorter than the other. I've been telling him ever since that he's really not a very good hunter because of the animals being already wounded and slowed somewhat :-). BTW, Both of these animals were in very good health and didn't seem to be adversely affected in any way by these old wounds....