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Poaching

dante322

*Supporting Member*
5,506
157
Crawford county
this story goes back 2018...
The morning of November 22nd, Thanksgiving, I was running an errand for my wife. I decided to make a run out past the hunting grounds to see if anything was moving. On the way back I spotted a large buck laying dead in a yard that wasn't there when I went past 15 minutes earlier. I called the sheriff and spoke to the home owner and claimed the roadkill. That night I processed it and could find no damage other than some hemorrhage in the upper neck. I assumed it got hit in the head / neck and succumbed to a brain injury. After I was finished processing, I buried the head in the backyard like I always do.

Fast forward to today... I was doing some yard work and realized that I had never dug that skull up.... get the shovel...
The first thing that came out of the ground was what appeared to be a piece of the back of the skull. I couldn't figure out how I had broken it. Once I got the rest of it out, I realized the skull had already been fractured... by a bullet...
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20200808_134417.jpg


From behind and above. The track went through the brain and out the bottom. The bullet in the last picture is a 405 grain .45-70 that I reload with, I laid it there for a size reference
 
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Smawgunner

Junior Member
223
61
Athens
I wonder if the poacher was waiting till the dust settled to pick it up. Sounds like you beat him to the punch. I’m surprised the lady didn’t hear the shot.