data-csrf="1711630394,6672e78adf4009280604408baf151c13" This isn’t looking good..... | As Real As It Gets

This isn’t looking good.....

hangunnr

Administrator
Dec 12, 2007
1,912
77
Flatlandia
I spend the majority of my deer hunting between 2 farms about 12 miles apart. During the early archery season on the west farm I saw a buck I guessed to be a 3yr old based on the rack size that was obviously sick, his ribs were showing and you could see the vertebrae down his back. He was in a spot where I couldn’t get an arrow into him. Never saw him again during my time on that farm.
Didn’t see any other signs of trouble on that property. Ended up killing a buck on that farm, I’ll cover that in a different post.

While hunting the east farm it was painfully obvious that something was wrong. The normal travel routes were very sparsely used. I didn’t see a single scrape or rub on the property. Granted I haven’t walked all of it. The only sightings I’ve had have been one doe and fawn and a pair of 1.5yr old bucks. 4 deer in 8 morning/evening sets. To put that into perspective on this farm I’ve seen as many as 15 different bucks in a days set.

While working my way down the creek that bisects the property I saw the skeletal remains of the buck pictured below. A couple weeks pass and I get back out there walking the same creek and come across the doe. I’ve heard rumors of there being EHD/Bluetongue in the area but haven’t talked to or met anyone who actually documented it on their property. Unfortunately what’s left of the deer can’t provide any useable material for testing.

Carcass pix were taken with my phone through my binocs so image quality isn’t the best.







Not really sure what to do next other than get in contact with the DNR wildlife biologists to see what their take is on this.
 
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Rolltide

rimfiretactical.com
Dec 15, 2007
1,206
18
Oh crap, that sucks.

We had a huge drop-off in deer numbers a few years ago and suspected EHD, but we never could find evidence of it...we just went from seeing 20 - 30 deer per hunter per day, to less than 10 all season...
 

bgold

Well-known member
Jul 30, 2008
917
16
Missouri
We had that the year before the farm sold. EHD hit hard and found a bunch next to and in water. Numbers dropped off big time...
 

hangunnr

Administrator
Dec 12, 2007
1,912
77
Flatlandia
Guess I’ve been out of the info loop here in my little piece of flatlandia. Hearing about how wide spread this problem is in Indiana alone is quite disturbing. Hate to see the animals suffer like this. We’ve always had good numbers here with a few mature bucks being at least sighted if not killed each year. Haven’t seen or heard of a big one being killed on or around either farm for a couple years now, maybe that should have been my first clue.