RICHIE3

Maybe we wouldn't question this guy's "kill"
or "pickup", if he had not portrayed himself as some sort of "great whitetail hunter" as he did on his web site. Enough questions are going to come into play when an animal of this size is taken, without all the self-promoted hoopla. Maybe this should be a real learning lesson for all of us if we are ever in this situation. Some people say "If i kill a buck this size, to hell with what people think of me!" I'm sorry, but in my opinion, this is what gives the sport a bad name. I don't mind someone making a little cash off a great trophy, but, this guy is selling replicas of his rack?! Come on guys! I think more highly of you all than that, and hope the same in return. If I were on the Anti's side, I would be laughing at all of the help that Zaft, Rompola, and others are creating for me to bash the sport with poor sportsmanship. We are sitting here arguing amongst ourselves over a trophy of a lifetime, whether it was killed or found. And it doesn't help when a high amount of self-promotion goes with it.

stickerpt

The deer would not have died if Zaft had not
put an arrow into it. It is very likely that
the buck was laying up and the coyotes came
across it and chased it out into the field.
As for Zaft making money off of it. This is
America the land of enterprise. Those antlers
are his enterprise. He isn't doing anything
wrong by capitalizing on his good fortune.

RuRu12

azhunter - The bow that Zaft was using is legal for P&Y entry, Mike Beatty's was not.

Buck Magnet

stickerpt My whole point is that he never recovered the deer. He shouldn't be allowed to entire it as a trophy when he didn't recover anything but the antlers. I may be one of the few guys that believe this, but it is RIDICULOUS that people will milk their deer for as much money as they possibly can. He is selling replicas of his mount to anybody that wants to pay for them. If I shot this deer, I wouldn't want everyone and their uncle to own a mount just like mine, would you?

Good Luck This Season: Buck Magnet
P.S. Only Chuck Adams can sit at home and see deer so get into the woods. =;^)

Deleted User

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hoythunter48

hey ive had the same situation here dad shot one unsure shot so we waited till morning we found it but meat was ruined to the point you coulndt stay ten feet away we checked it i but coulndt keep the meat id say the zaft is on the borderline

davidmil

Doesn't matter if we believe him or not. It can't be shown this deer died of anything more than natural causes, whether those natural causes are old age or coyotes. It's very easy to say after the fact that he had velvet all over... especially since that's how you found him. I got to ask this question again. What in the world is a deer doing this late in the season with all that velvet still on him. Maybe he died weeks before.<img src=icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle> That should stir things.

RedOak

The thing that gets me is he went and poked around the next morning and then went to work. In my neck of the woods attendance gets pretty spotty during season. Now if you come in saying you just probably killed the next world record but can't find it you best be there looking for recruits for the search party.

NJ_Bowhntr

This is so funny. The circumstances around this deer are ten times as fishy as anything surrounding the Rompola Buck, yet people want to trash Rompola, and defend this guy. What gives?

I'm with davidmil, this deer could have died a few weeks before, been eaten by coyotes, and found by the farmer. Zaft may have shot a huge buck in that area, but are we sure it's this one? How do you know? I would think that with velvet just hanging like that, it hadn't been hanging there long. Therefore, I would guess this deer died within a day or two of shedding velvet. The way that stuff was dangling from the rack leads me to believe that a day or two of walking through the brush would have removed those dangling strips quickly.

stealthycat

Lets look at it this way. The landowner who found the deer - if he wasn't a nice guy, in all reality he could have kept this rack - legally, right ? He found it, there was nothing, and I mean NOTHING, to prove it was Zafts deer, other than Zaft's word, right ? So looking at it that way, the landowner actually gave the deer's rack to Zaft - a very generous thing to do, but had he wanted, he could have kept that rack and Zaft could have done NOTHING, am I right ?

So, if Zaft couldn't prove it was his deer in that scenario, how can he prove its his deer to P&Y ??

stickerpt -&quot; The deer would not have died if Zaft had not put an arrow into it&quot;

Now, THATS what the anti-bowhunting anti-hunting groups love to hear. I doubt you meant it like &quot;Awe, shoot at it, stick it and maybe you'll get lucky and kill it&quot; but thats what it came across the computer as.

Antler Eater - I guess coyotes can then - thanks for clearing that up.