Mike Mittin have you topped last years yet?

[Herdbull]

Here is the last pic I got of buck that died. He was down by the lake. His knees look good. I figure he died 0ctober 17 or there abouts.


 

[Oliverstacy]

This pains me to see...so many others are in the same boat!

EHD has wiped our farm out...friend found 39 dead without much effort on a very short walk.  They found another 80 on just over 240 acres close to what water was left (small lake with a large swamp that surrounded it).  Another friend said every swamp/waterhole that had water remaining in September (not many) had dead deer in them, simply horrible!  Kent/Montcalm/Ionia counties in Michigan were hit the hardest...our farm is smack dab where they all meet.

Talked to another friend last night…he told me they haven't seen a deer in a field since the last part of July/early part of August, just a horrible deal!  Normally they push deer around when they harvest the corn…in 1500 acres they saw just 2, unbelievable!  People stopped walking in the woods because of the smell.  I didn’t make it over that way this summer…2.5 hours 1 way, didn’t seem worth making the trip for trail cameras and treestand set-up.

I’ve heard people talk about deer taken in the surrounding areas loosing hooves…basically when you go to move a deer and grab a leg/foot the hooves are breaking off. They said the deer looked healthy but the hooves pulled off when they went to drag it away…it was a doe.  I’ve heard this is happening a lot???

Hope the population returns!  

Thanks,

Josh

P.S.  I edited this...I was in a hurry earlier and apparently forgot how to write!

[Herdbull]

Oliverstacy, I have been reading up on the disease as well, and I have not been able to find many intances of where only one or two deer are found dead in an area. There are usually multiple deaths. So this single buck seems to go against the paradigm.

[Lost Creek Bows]

5 out of the 7 where in or around water. And I had a old farmer tell me about the hair being going on or around there fist joint on the front leg joints. So far he has been right. He also said if ,you shot one and the hair is gone don't eat it. Its just what I have seen so far don't know for sure.

[Oliverstacy]

Originally posted by Herdbull:
Oliverstacy, I have been reading up on the disease as well, and I have not been able to find many intances of where only one or two deer are found dead in an area. There are usually multiple deaths. So this single buck seems to go against the paradigm.

From what I can tell if an area was hit with it the damage was great.  I don't like deer pens but a person 1 mile north of our farm who has a pen lost 33 of the 41 deer he had.  Old, young, bucks, does...all were affected.  

They say the first hard frost kills the bug (midge)...I would assume you'd had a good frost before the buck died, seems late for a deer to become ill.  Weird…wonder if he was infected earlier but didn’t die when the symptoms were the worst, but didn’t have the strength to fight off something new?  

So sad!  I guess the biggest buck found on our property was a mid-140’s 8 point, he was found on the edge of a swamp.

Thanks,

Josh

[Keefer]

I noticed that hair off in Mikes photo as well but fiqured something could of been eating on it already but here's a question for someone that may know..Is there any internal signs that can also determine if a deer has EHD? The reason I ask is I was able to harvest a buck a few weeks ago and when I opened up his chest cavity to dig out the inerds right near his lungs were these spongy sacks with a yellowish tint like urine but not like puss but more of a liquid..My buddy and I were like what in the world is that? The deers tongue,body,eyes ,teeth and hooves all looked healthy but we were both baffled thinking he must have got a cold or something? The insides all looked normal other then the damage my Zwicky had done..This area had no foul smell or anything just a somewhat clear to slight yellow liquid...

[buckeye_hunter]

Any info needed about EHD can be found here;

 http://fw.ky.gov/ehdinfo.asp

[Herdbull]

I know that I let this thread sway towards EHD as cause of death. But over the weekend, in the middle of the dirt road we found a huge pool of blood and a spent 20 gauge shell left 40 yards from the over-night scene. Called the wardens and ask them to patrol. Two wardens drove from town the next evening without lights using night vision. Well low and behold, they see a spotlight spanning both sides of the road from a vehicle near my hunting property!!! After hollowing the vehicle for over a half mile, it turns around and come back toward the wardens. The officers hoped to carch them red handed shooting at a deer, but for safety resons they had to turn their lights on and give away there pressence. After pulling the vehicle over 5 tickets were issued to each of 3 persons in the truck. Multiple uncased, loaded 0.22 rifles and shotguns were observed and confiscated. It took  an hour and a half to write them up, all while pulled over within 50 yards of the lake I found the big buck in during October.

So with these three, the arrest total climbs to 9 near my property this year alone.  You can see why I have not totally ruled out a small .22 caliber hole which may have gone undetected.  Not good!

[oldgoat]

Mike this is probally to late, but some what the same thing happened to an old rancher friend of mine. Large buck found dead, no sign of cause of death. He wired the carcass to a tree after removing the head. Came back with his son n law's metal detractor and found .22 bullet in the remains.

[Herdbull]

Good idea. I left the carcass on the bank of the lake, but I noticed that after a week, the coyotes drug it back partially in the water. There may be enough there to give it a try. Will the detector pick up on lead?

[Quickblood]

Wow Mike, sorry to hear of your misfortunes with the slob poachers.  Too bad you can't spend your time better in the woods following your passion.  Hang in there and best of luck to you.

[Herdbull]

Thanks, but these guys are running the roads at night mostly. I'm on first shift.  Ha!

[2treks]

A detector will pick up lead very well.
Keep after them Mike.
CTT

[ti-guy]

Frustrating   :mad:  Keep up  

[Sean B]

The .22 mag is the poachers gun of choice in my parts.  Found a large bodied headless buck 50 yards from one of my stand a few years ago.  Small hole behind the left shoulder.  Gets my BP up just thinking about it.

[Keefer]

Mike,
 I hope these fella's don't know you or your history with big bucks but they may have been watching you so be very careful by yourself out there...I used to sit out a few times with the D.N.R. to catch poachers and I cann't tolerate what they do..You are somewhat of a celebrity so keep a low profile and don't tell anyone where you are hunting that know ya in that area..People do crazy things in todays world and I hope if they can find evidence of a bullet in that buck and get time for what they did...As far as a metal detector it picks of lead very well..A friend of mine who was a D.N.R. police officer had this Sika deer that a poacher killed and had it sent to a taxidermist to make a full mount to use as a decoy to catch poachers and he showed me where the guy shot it on the hide..Well after this fella was arrested and charged he still poached deer and guess what the poacher did..He shot the same deer twice..YEP he shot the stuffed sika he already killed once before...This is a true story and not one of Uncle Barry's story's I'm tellin ya..I asked the D.N.R. friend when he told me this story on a stake out one night with this sika deer how could the judge charge him twice? I said "ain't that called double jeoperty? He said we never thought of that but he did get charged twice for the same killing! True story      

P.S. Almost forgot to mention that when my friend retired from the D.N.R. the Sika buck was also retired cause of the age of this deer..My buddy used to touch up the color of the hide with Dark brown spray paint to freshin him up..I asked him one day about a year ago "what happened to that buck"? He told me that since he roamed the Black Water of Dorchester Co. they decided to put him on display at the Blackwater wildlife refuge mini museum...He can now R.I.P. there and not worry about lead slingers...