Strange things found in the forest

[Luke'sScreenName]

 

[KretZ]

Sometimes deer are the ghosts of the forest. Stealthy and crafty and almost magical. Sometimes they are just about the dumbest things you can imagine.

I like this quote, I am thinking of using it for my motto, you cool with that WCD? :thumbsup:

 

[zing]

I contacted the state wildlife agency not the park rangers. In hindsight, I should have contacted both.

I don't think the park rangers would have dump dead deer at that spot. While the spot was not visible from the road, the deer were sorta near some houses and the deer were not in the woods. The deer were also spread out a bit. If someone was going to dump the deer out of the back of a pick up, I think the deer would have been in a pile. Thinking about it some more, I don't think the deer could have been dumped at the same time from a UTV since there were too many of them to be carried at one time and multiple trips would have been more likely to leave tracks. A truck could have gone in with one load, and maybe not have left tracks but then I would expect the deer to be piled more closely together....

This was also on the edge of the park and I don't think the rangers went out there that often. The problems they had deal with were on the interior of the park. The only access the rangers would have had to that spot was via the power line. They would have had to driven up the power line from the park interior or gone out on public roads with a load of a dead deer. There were better spots to dump deer...

I really am starting to wonder if lightning did the deed. The deer were under a power line. A lightning strike would explain how there were that many dead deer in one spot, close together but not too close, and all at the same stage of decomposition. The only fly in that ointment is what I thought were bullet holes. Maybe the deer were at a certain stage of decomposition that created a small bullet sized hole or bug had created the hole. :confused3:

Later,
Dan

Sounds like someone baited the area for a while and then just shot them over a period of a few days. Possibly at night with a light. Target practice maybe? People have been known to do stupid things...

 

[zing]

I went elk hunting in Idaho near the Franck Church, River of no return wilderness, some years back. As we drove in, we went past the old Yankee Fork Gold Dredge. It was like seeing a time capsule. As we got deeper into the wilderness, you passed the old gold mining camps and cabins. We'd come across old dozers and other antiquated machinery just left to rust in the woods and some of the cabins were still pretty much intact. It had once been a gold camp with a population of 2500 at it's peak and you could see the scars of old roads, drainage and rock piles if you paid attention to the topography. A number of miles downstream from our campsite, there were some hot springs that flowed into the river. Over the years, people had arranged the river rocks to make pools that would blend the frigid river water with the hot springs. You could adjust the rocks ,like a regulator, to make the pool as hot or cold as you wanted it. After a few days of hard hiking, we took a "camp day" and soaked in the hot springs to ease our sore muscles, it was much needed.

You have to be careful of spending time on the riverbanks and estuaries downstream of old gold mines. What looks like beach rock today, could be mining tailings from long ago. There was a lot of mercury used in ways that would blow the mind of people today, when we know how little it takes to be dangerous. Mercury can be still found in dangerous levels many decades afterward.

Here is an example of research/testing done near old mine sites in Nova Scotia, but I would expect it to be true elsewhere as well.
Consequences of Historical Mining | Gold Mining | Gold: A Nova Scotia Treasure

 

[dmccarty]

Where were the holes? Lighting can leave exit holes I've heard.

I only remember there being one hole that looked like a bullet wound that was in the side of the deer. The deer were getting a bit ripe so no way was I turning them over. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

I would have expected lightning to leave a more ragged hole and be in other places. On boats, lightning will do all sorts of crazy things including blowing multiple holes in the hull so who knows...

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Well I don't kill just for the kill....although I do enjoy the kill,...I have shot deer in the same spot before. I have killed a deer with muzzle loader, and just as fast as I could reload, killed another that stood there trying to figure out what had happened. I have also sat in a blind and killed one, then an hour later killed another, just 20 feet from it...gutted them both on the spot that they dropped, and the next day killed another one that was sniffing one of the gut piles. Sometimes deer are the ghosts of the forest. Stealthy and crafty and almost magical. Sometimes they are just about the dumbest things you can imagine.

That could be it too if the deer where curious enough to sniff the dead or just stand there. I have never seen deer just stand still, they always moved and moved fast.

If a guy shot them all in the same place, he had to have done it over a very few days since the deer were all in the same stage of rotting. They had not busted open yet but they were starting to bulge out and the buzzards had not got to them yet which is surprising. No buzzards overhead either. I would guess in another day or so the deer would have popped open. They most have been killed within a few days of me finding them.

Later,
Dan

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Clearly either aliens or Obama are to blame!

 

[ch1ch2]

Well I have been reading this for a while. Let me tell everyone. Someone I know was hunting in a ground blind. A herd of deer came in. They found the biggest rack and shot it. The deer scattered a short distance in all directions. They sat without moving. The deer quickly returned and formed up again. They shot a big doe. The deer spooked a bit but did not run off. The hunter shot a second doe and then shot a buck. The deer still stayed there not knowing where the hunter was or what was happening. The hunters license was for four deer two bucks. The hunter reached their limit so they could not shoot any more. The hunter exited their blind and the deer ran off. They shot and tagged all the deer in ten minutes. They processed and ate all the meat.

Name were changed to protect the innocent.

 

[check]

I once fired a total of 3 rounds of 303 British from a bolt action WW1 rifle at a big White Tail buck, and he never moved until finally the third shot spit up a bit of dirt at his feet. Couldn't believe he just stood there watching me chamber the second and third rounds with a very noisy bolt action - he was maybe 20 yards away. (Don't ask why I missed him 3 times at that distance.). Some Deer are just dumb!

 

[turnkey4099]

I once fired a total of 3 rounds of 303 British from a bolt action WW1 rifle at a big White Tail buck, and he never moved until finally the third shot spit up a bit of dirt at his feet. Couldn't believe he just stood there watching me chamber the second and third rounds with a very noisy bolt action - he was maybe 20 yards away. (Don't ask why I missed him 3 times at that distance.). Some Deer are just dumb!

That deer probably figured he was safe as long as he didn't move!

Harry K