What would you do?

[heelbilly]

That's great, keep us posted and good luck.

[bds9]

I wish it was just a big made up story!!! I'm the second most unlucky person I know, so I'm sure it won't work out for me!! But thanks for the support!!!

[mrbb]

well I too have bad luck

But I wouldn't give up hope yet, Wv game dept was always great to deal with from my experience(friends that live in Wv have had great luck working with the dept, always top notch helpful folks we dealed with)

so never say never till its all over

Hope you get it back

[bds9]

Well, yesterday I made the 100 mile trip again to try to look for this deers body. On my way, I recieved a call from the GW, He said he was looking at the picture of the deer and asked me to describe it to him. So I again described it as I had numerous other times, and he says i've described the deer exactly except that its a slick 8 point instead of a slick 10 like I had thought. SO my emotions were mixed, I told the GW I was gonna go check out the carcass anyways even though I was pretty sure the deer I shot was a ten. SO after going to where the outfitter told me it was and not finding the carcass, I just started going up the creek back towards my parents property. After about two hours of searching I was about to give up, I found him! So I got down in the creek, and sure as the world, he's shot low and his front left leg is broken!! Exactly where I shot the deer at!!! (however I didn't hit the deer as bad as I thought, He probably woulda died where we jumped him at had I given him more time!) So I immediately call the GW, tell him what I found, and he says ok, well youve convinced me that this is the deer you shot. So he tells me he will put in a recommendation of possesion with the WV game and fish and after the boys trial I have a really good chance at getting the deer back! He says as long as the judge doesn't order the deer to be destroyed, which he said doubts will happen since it wasn't a poached deer That I'll probably get it! So I guess that this deer must be the big 10's son or brother or something, becasue I woulda bet it was him! So on a bright note, the big ten still lives to my knowledge, I indeed killed a big eight, and I actually have a chance of recovering him!!

[bds9]

Oh and left the GW a message last night asking if he would send me a pic of the buck, he hasn't responded yet, but if I get a pic I will post it!!

[Big_Holla]

Boy this has turned into quite the story bds9!! I have been meaning to chime in for quite some time but always seemed to get sidetracked.

I had such a similar story as yours this year with the buck I killed in Ohio. In my post on it you will see that we tracked mine for quite some time and distance only to lose the blood trail in the rain. The next day's search produced nothing and soon I was trying to accept the notion that it must have happened for a reason. Headed back home on a Sunday only to find out that my cousin, on their family property in the direction of where the deer was headed, that same day found my buck. Big 8 with a drop tine on the right side, hard for any to doubt it was my deer. Even though I knew my cousin would give the buck back to me I was prepared mentally just in case. Was a tough roller coaster ride for two weeks from the time I saw the buck to the time I finally laid my hands on him.

In talking with my cousin he said flat out, he had no emotional attachment to the buck and could clearly see mine. He wouldn't even think of keeping a buck if he knew who's it was. As he told me a story about a similar situation years ago when he shot a buck and couldn't find it on some other property he had permission on, it was found by the neighbors a few days later and to this date he still had laid his eyes on the rack or even seen a picture of it. You could see the way that made him feel. How any hunter, if they want to call themselves that, could EVER hold on to a buck that they KNOW was killed by another hunter is beyond me.

KARMA is a bitch.....guess those guys found out what THAT really means BDS9!! Glad to hear you are en-route to a happy ending!!

[bds9]

I was going to start a new thread on this but figured it would save me some explaining if I just replied to this one. Anyways, I recieved the best phone call I have recieved in a while last thursday! It was the GW! He says I should be expecting a phone call from the WVDNR within a few days to schedule a pickup for my Deer Head! I'm super pumped to say the least! I heard that the guys that were caught with it got in quite a bit of trouble, but hey they broke the law and I'm getting my deer. Officer Gilkey said it was in "pretty rough" shape but the antlers were still fine. I will post a pic as soon as I get it! I still have no clue exactly how big he is but I have a pretty good idea of how he looks!