bigbuckbuster
09-16-2014, 10:17 AM
Went out for an elk hunt in Reg 8 the past few days. My hunting partner and I met at my cabin Thursday night and headed to our spot across town at 4am Friday morning. When we arrived to the spot that we park the truck, there was a camper set up there. i was very disappointed because I had put in many days of scouting and seen a huge bull there a few weeks prior. We had a quick look around and it seemed that nobody was around so we started our hike up the hill. By 10am it was close to 20 degrees so we decided to go set up camp about 6-7 km's away. After dinner the temp started to drop again so we put the packs back on and started back up a different spot. About an hour in we came over a ridge and I spotted a deer frozen, staring right at us. I grabbed the bino's and sure enough it was a 4pt...Boom! 2 steps and down he went. At that point I was pumped, couldn't be happier but when I walked up to it, I saw it had some growths on its neck and around its eye, it looked disgusting and I thought, "we cant even eat this thing".
We dressed the deer with 2 sets of gloves on and put him on a pecker pole to get back to the truck, the whole time thinking of how much work this was going to be just to throw it away. We got back to camp and hung the buck up, skinned it and left it for the night. In the morning I called the meat cooler and made sure he stayed cold. I asked the guy about the lumps and he said not to eat it, its garbage. Now I'm super disappointed nd feel bad that I didn't notice the lumps before I shot it.
Just to be safe, I called the local CO and told him the story, he knew exactly what they were and said that I would have no problem eating that deer. So now I have a yes and a no, I need a 3rd opinion to break the tie...I call the wildlife biologist and he confirms that its good to eat. He also refers the case to the wildlife vet for bc and she also confirms that there would be no harm from eating the buck.
After the ups and down I'm glad to have the first buck of the year at the butcher.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/s960x960/10682397_10205075832200255_224594943251703660_o.jp g
We dressed the deer with 2 sets of gloves on and put him on a pecker pole to get back to the truck, the whole time thinking of how much work this was going to be just to throw it away. We got back to camp and hung the buck up, skinned it and left it for the night. In the morning I called the meat cooler and made sure he stayed cold. I asked the guy about the lumps and he said not to eat it, its garbage. Now I'm super disappointed nd feel bad that I didn't notice the lumps before I shot it.
Just to be safe, I called the local CO and told him the story, he knew exactly what they were and said that I would have no problem eating that deer. So now I have a yes and a no, I need a 3rd opinion to break the tie...I call the wildlife biologist and he confirms that its good to eat. He also refers the case to the wildlife vet for bc and she also confirms that there would be no harm from eating the buck.
After the ups and down I'm glad to have the first buck of the year at the butcher.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/s960x960/10682397_10205075832200255_224594943251703660_o.jp g