Broken front leg survival?

[Spike_Horn_Shooter]

Funny story: Gun hunting in Public in Ohio. Thick swampy area right next road. Other-side is a corn field. Watch some guys do a deer drive right next to the road. They kicked out multiple deer. No shots fired. Next day go back with my 65 year old dad and uncle. Put my uncle right where I was the day before. Kick up deer. Uncle shoots deer with 45-70. It gets back up. I shoot it with 350 legend. It gets back up. I shoot again in the neck. Uncle walks over and says excitedly: “that’s the first running deer I ever shot”. I look the deer over and say: “don’t be too proud of yourself - he’s only got 3 legs”.

The deer seemed to be doing ok with a healed over missing front leg. If anything he didn’t develop his antlers to potential.

 

[Lucky_P]

I've seen some pretty amazing 'heals'; sometimes they just form a 'false joint' but are pretty functional. Rear limbs - if broken high - tend to heal better than fronts - 60% of weight-bearing is on front limbs, so they can do far better even with the 'loss' of a rear limb than a front. But... we had a 3 legged doe around here for years, missing most of one front leg below the carpus (knee)
He looks to be in decent shape right now; I'd probably let him go and see how he fares - unless you need the meat - and I'd much prefer a doe or yearling to a late-season buck 5 ways from Sunday.
But... as others have stated, he may be 'easy prey' for coyotes.

 

[Bill]

Many many years ago I put a 3 legged doe out of her misery. She was missing a front leg below the knee. Managed to shoot her other front knee out with a black powder gun. Then I had to reload and follow her as she plowed through the snow with only two back legs. I put her out of her misery but I was the one who created it. That first leg was healed over nicely.

 

[Angus 1895]

The pictures show a fairly bright eyed buck.

is he rumimating…chewing a cud?

If it was me I would eat him.

otherwise you roll the dice.

Happy New Year

 

[Native Hunter]

Our coyotes have evolved since we first started seeing them again years ago. Back then it was lone hunters or maybe a pair at the most. Now they hunt in packs like wolves. It's not uncommon to get a trail came pic of 5 or 6 together, so I don't think they are hunting mice like lots of people say. I wonder if we don't have some of the "wolf cross" yotes that have been documented in the northeast, but so far the so called experts say no.

 

[DJN]

I think I may have posted about the buck we had on our farm prior to this, but he’s a perfect example of what could happen with they survive. We called him Tripod (original, I know ) and had pictures of him for 3 years before he disappeared in November of last season.
First year of pics:




Second year:



Last year:


The only time I ever saw him in person was early spring prior to the first year pictures. Midday he was feeding in a cut corn field, and looked pretty bad (very skinny). I was tempted to shoot him just to put him out of his misery, but decided to let nature run its course. Sure would like to know what ultimately happened to him.

 

[Catscratch]

I think I may have posted about the buck we had on our farm prior to this, but he’s a perfect example of what could happen with they survive. We called him Tripod (original, I know ) and had pictures of him for 3 years before he disappeared in November of last season.
First year of pics:
View attachment 48417
View attachment 48418
View attachment 48419

Second year:


View attachment 48420
Last year:
View attachment 48421

The only time I ever saw him in person was early spring prior to the first year pictures. Midday he was feeding in a cut corn field, and looked pretty bad (very skinny). I was tempted to shoot him just to put him out of his misery, but decided to let nature run its course. Sure would like to know what ultimately happened to him.

Great pics and documentation! Thanks for posting. I wonder how much had to do with his body's reaction to injury vs genetics?

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

To put it in perspective……we kill around 200,000 deer per season here in Alabama that get reported to game check. Going off of some rough surveying some of have done we estimate that there’s at least another 10% that are shot and never recovered…….That’s roughly 20,000 deer and that’s probably lowballing it……Leg hits are one of the most common marginal hits that occur so there’s likely easily several thousand leg hits that occur across the state of Alabama annually. These three legged deer that live are a small handful out of thousands. That’s how rare it is for one to survive such…..You’re talking about like 0.001%

 

[DJN]

Great pics and documentation! Thanks for posting. I wonder how much had to do with his body's reaction to injury vs genetics?

Well we’ve owned the farm for 41 years and I’ve had trail cams on it for around 21. All I’ve ever seen are typical (by all means, some big typicals, but nothing remotely non-typical like this). I’m guessing the injury definitely helped flip that switch to non typical.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Got a 3 legged doe that hangs around our family cabin in Northern MN that has made it through the last 2 winters. This group of deer basically live amongst the cabins on the lakeshore though and I think that helps them avoid wolves/bears a bit more and they probably get a leg up on the deer in the big woods with people feeding them.

My dad shot 2 different 3 legged bucks in a 3 year period when I was a kid. This was in a MN slug zone where there's lots of marginal shots taken by shitty shooters with inaccurate weapons - I.E. lots of wounding. In both cases the bad leg had been that way for at least a year. My poor dad thought both bucks were recently wounded by hunters and shot both to "put them out of their misery" but it seemed that wasn't needed haha.

 

[Bassattackr]

I’m continually surprised how well they do. Tons of coyotes in my area and had 2 different bucks survive for years. One had a broken front leg and the other got hit by a car as a yearling and had a dislocated hip. They move slow but nothing seems to bother them..

 

[Derek Reese 29]

I have 2 examples of missing-limb deer..the first was a 3 legged doe on our farm that was totally missing a front leg..we were forbidden to shoot her by my grandfather as she had at least 2 and sometimes 3 fawns each year (our theory was that the missing leg made her easier for the bucks to catch her during the rut).
The other example was at my in laws farm where last year we got a big 8 point on cam 2 days before archery season started who had a dangling front leg. Never saw him during hunting season, but this year a big 10 point with no front leg showed up along with another 8 point with a missing front leg. I guess the deer up there are just very unlucky when it comes to cars or other accidents, but as far as we can tell both have made it in a very high coyote area.

 

[blueKYstream]

My dad shot this one in the leg last year. He seems to be doing alright. I've seen him a couple times this year. I shot a buck and he chased after a 4-pointer and the doe my buck was with following that.

 

[Angus 1895]

Are you not going to risk a bunch of three legged fawns?

 

[Catscratch]

Are you not going to risk a bunch of three legged fawns?

I figure any 3 legged fawns born will be weeded out by the chupacabra.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I’m hoping for 2 legged fawns, one front one back, opposite sides naturally. Less likely to wonder off my property that way.

 

[356]

I enjoyed the privilege of mentoring my 38 year old son on his first deer hunt as part of a Field to Fork event with the NDA in Northern Missouri. While several opportunities presented him, he choose to harvest mature doe that was missing a rear leg. As we assessed the options, he noted the deer would likely not make it through the season, and that harvesting this doe over others in the field was the ethical thing to do.

That evening our group dressed four does, as each participant had a successful hunt. My son's doe had significantly less fat reserves compared to the others. All four were 2.5 years or older (although we are waiting for a final aging, as we sent in the front teeth), and all four were in similar habitat. The possibility of the doe with the missing leg surviving winter was minimal, based on the fat reserves.

 

[SWIFFY]

I got video of the best buck on my farm yesterday favoring his back right leg.... he shed his antlers yesterday as well! Thats 14 days ahead of last year. Im not sure if its because hes injured or because weve been having extreme cold and snow? Perhaps a little of both...

 

[Crimson n' Camo]

It'd be interesting to document how many of these injured deer like this come up missing. Back leg injuries are extremely debilitating to a deer when it comes to its ability to evade predators. I think a lot of injured adult deer likely fall prey to coyotes each year.....not just ones shot by hunters but rutting/fighting type injuries as well

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I got video of the best buck on my farm yesterday favoring his back right leg.... he shed his antlers yesterday as well! Thats 14 days ahead of last year. Im not sure if its because hes injured or because weve been having extreme cold and snow? Perhaps a little of both...
View attachment 48465

On the bright side you know he’s still breathing at least! Little more motivation to light up the coyotes this winter.