"The Zombie Buck" Trail cam pic of a buck with a hole in his side

[Matt DDO]

Check out this buck behind my house. I was shocked when I saw this picture:

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Not sure what happened to him but it sure looks like a big hole in his right side. My thoughts are either:
1.) Sharp angle shot
2.) Big expandable that got essentially zero penetration, maybe due to low bow poundage or the shot was too far.

After I saw this picture, I went back through my trail cam pics and found several more pictures of this buck from late April to early June. Here's a quick video I put together with all the pics of him thus far:

He seems fine and is shaping up to be a really good buck for SW Michigan. Thoughts on what happened to him?

 

[Rich M]

Tough critters. What surprised me was that he started growing horns...

Zombie is a good name for him.

 

[Trr15]

My guess is someone shot him at close range with a Berger VLD and it exploded before it broke the skin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[farmerboy1381]

I can’t come up with plausible way that an arrow or high powered rifle hitting him there would not do more damage. I think even a bounce of the shoulder blade would look different. Just my opinion. Do you have a poaching problem? I wonder if a 22 bullet entering from a quartering away would have bounced on the front shoulder missing enough vitals and infection would have made it look worse?

 

[Rich M]

Don't forget the possibility of a dog/coyote bite, tangled in a fence, running into a pointy stick while running away from something, lightening, etc.

It is located where a hunter would aim but we're not the only things that cause injuries to animals.

 

[Tyson]

Looks like you've done some nice hinge cutting in some of those pics! I'm assuming a mechanical broadhead opened in flight and stuck in him but didn't penetrate far, but some of the other suggestions on here make sense too. Hopefully he sticks around on your property, getting big bucks in Michigan is hard (I'm in Michigan as well). It's taken a lot of habitat management to start seeing big bucks every year and keep them on our property,

 

[Myronman3]

Looks to me like a varmint bullet wound.

 

[jebanning1s]

I agree probably a FMJ round or a muzzleloader bullet that was tumbling.

 

[Bartyfc]

That's wild. Guess you'll have to get a closer inspection of the body after you put him to sleep to find out the real backstory.

 

[Myronman3]

i wouldnt kill a deer that has been through that much and survived. it’s earned it’s right to be left alone in my book.

 

[mbrady3]

That sure is crazy, thats for sure!! These buggers r tough!!

 

[Chowell]

Crazy looking, wouldn’t waste my time going after him. If that didn’t kill him nothing will.

 

[dacd4134]

Dude.... has anyone ever told you that you look like Matt Carriker from the Demolition Ranch YouTube channel? Maybe it's just the glasses/hat/beard, but it took me a minute to realize that you weren't him, especially since your name is also Matt.





Also, cool vid/pics with that buck!

 

[cmc9341616]

Would not eat

 

[paulnack]

Don't let this guy pass on his genes. Sure as fk you don't want a forest full of unkillable deer.

 

[Chevynbow]

Don't let this guy pass on his genes. Sure as fk you don't want a forest full of unkillable deer.

Concur!

 

[FLAK]

Varmint bullet/ballistic tip.

 

[PA Bruce]

hard to believe what a deer can endure and still live!

 

[saintsfan]

Wow. That's nuts.

 

[JesseG74]

X2