second chance buck

I have heard stories of guys finding broadheads, chunks of lead, etc. but 
thought it was pretty cool story.

Wasp in the Skull Buck

 As the story goes, this deer was harvested with a bow on Dec. 30th by Jay Trudell of Delafield Wisconsin. On New Years Eve, Jay took the deer to a friend's house to be butchered. They skinned it for a shoulder mount, stopping right behind the ear.



The buck dressed out at 175 pounds and has a good layer of fat on its rump. Every indication was that this was a normal, healthy deer. After the taxidermist capped the skull, he cut the skull plate to remove the antlers. As he finished the cut, he hit metal. Jay got the skull and antlers back and cleaned them. The hide was completely healed and did not give any indication that there was an injury. The threaded portion of the broadhead had snapped off.

The deer had been shot in a prior season with a Wasp Hammer broadhead. It entered the brain but did not kill the deer. It also passed through the hinge of the jaw and had grown over with bone and prevented the jaw from opening all but the smallest amount. The brain was infected around the puncture wound.

Heree you see an aging jaws next to the skull to show how the jaw hinge should look.




Here you can see the opposite healthy side



The bone had grown over the broadhead and through the vent in the blade and bridged the gap.

The upper left arrow shows how much hinge movement was allowed in the jaw, The opening and closing of the mouth had worn a curved area away



There must be some less-than-lethal hunters where Jays hunts because 2 years prior to this, Jay's brother shot deer with a damaged hindquarter. Upon removing the meat, they discovered a portion of a broadhead embedded in femur (hindquarter) Pictured is the bone from the opposite (healthy) side of the same deer as a comparison. Both of these injuries were at least a year old. Whitetails are tough animals.