A hunter who wishes to remain anonymous sent this story and picture.
Mike: A guy looking for sheds found this buck yesterday on a farm in Illinois. I had hunted that farm and that buck for 2 years. The deer was still lying in the woods for days because the DNR had not shown up yet to look things over and issue the shed hunter a salvage tag for the rack. The dead buck is not 200 yards from a field that is visible from a remote back road. The last day of gun season was in December, and surprisingly the coyotes have not torn into the deer yet. The shed hunter didn’t move the buck, but said it looked to be gut-shot. The thinking is that the deer was poached before dropping its antlers, though we do not know for sure and cannot prove it.
Kudos to the guy who found this buck for doing the right thing, letting me know and calling the DNR for a salvage tag.–Anonymous
