My old friend has returned!

[Turkey Creek]

I have a buck named 3 legs, cause he has 3 legs DUH!:D Last I saw of him was the summer of 2014, figured he must have moved on to greener pastures in one sense or another. However he has returned. Funny how you can instantly recognize a buck. I was thumbing through pictures at a fairly fast clip this morning when he hit the screen I new instantly it was 3 legs. I am pretty sure he is 5.5 years old now. I will post up his debut photo when I find it. Nothing like having an old friend stop by. If I get the chance to harvest him it might be tough to let him walk this year. He is never going to be a monster buck and I have so much history with him that I hate to have him be shot and not appreciated by someone else. I have always debated about whether to shoot him or not, because I hate to be the SOB that kills a deer that is a "survivor". The only down side I guess is that being a taxidermist I will have to do a life size mount with him because that is the "rest of the story".



Here he is the first year I ever saw him. I pegged him at 2.5 that fall (pun intended) :)

 

[EOB]

We had a buck that was injured. He had one weak antler also. Followed him for several years, disappeared last year.

 

[biglakeba$$]

A friend of mine had a buck with one front leg that was deformed/unusable. Last they saw of him, he was 7 or 8 years old.

It was fun seeing an email from the guy "Skippy is back".
He had a sequence of trail cam pics where coyotes had him surrounded in an open field. He made it through that just fine.

Very neat TC.

 

[dipper]

All 5 year old bucks are survivors,some just eat up more than others.
I always wonder that about the bucks I've shot. How many times did they beat a hunter? Shot at? Almost killed by predator?

It's fun stuff

 

[bwoods11]

A good name for him would be "3 wheeler"

 

[Bill]

A 5 YO is a trophy I don't care what's on its head.

But you will miss him stopping by.

 

[willy]

Love them old survivors. Would love to know the story on the missing leg and where he was since you last seen him. Thanks for sharing

 

[Turkey Creek]

Love them old survivors. Would love to know the story on the missing leg and where he was since you last seen him. Thanks for sharing

Me to. It doesnt seem likely that he would have had it shot off as a 1 1/2 yr old. Wonder if fawns are ever born with that type of defect? Doesnt seem very probable that they would be able to survive from birth that way.

 

[biglakeba$$]

Here is skippy that my friend had on his land for 7 years. Definite birth defect. Amazing he got to adulthood. After that, he was a mean machine.

 

[Turkey Creek]

Very cool biglakeba$$.

 

[biglakeba$$]

Skippy had the free pass for his life. They did see him in person a number of times. One time my friend watched him "try" to make a scrape. LOLLL. He said it was pretty comical watching him try to paw the dirt up with only one front leg.

 

[willy]

Biglake, that is an great survivor example. Thanks

 

[tooln]

Both cool

 

[Turkey Creek]

I watched 3 Leg jump a 4 strand barb wire fence once. He walked up to the fence, sized it up walked back about 15 yards from the fence and then turned and went at the fence at his "top speed" he cleared it pretty easily. Always wondered if that is his tactic on every fence. He does know his limitations though, I have never seen him trying to chase does.:D He basically pays them no mind and goes about his normal routine.

 

[scott44]

That's cool that you have that much history with 3 legs.