Well we where sad to find this buck by the creek this morning. From the looks of it he was killed last night, not 100% sure he was poached but it sure looked like it. There is a dead end county road bordering part of our lease and a large oat field along that road. What would be our best coarse of action to try and prevent this in the future. Does TPWD/ Game Wardens have official poaching signs we could put up at the entrance of the road. Just looking for some ideas, I know game wardens can't be everywhere.

why does every one jump to the worst conclusion? What makes you think he was poached? Looks like a mature deer, maybe run down from the rut and yotes caught up to him? Maybe hunted ethically, but someone made a poor shot? Maybe, maybe, maybe...

If I am going to "poach" a deer, I dang sure won't just leave him lay, especially one like that! I just don't understand why everyone assumes the worse

Dave

Did he have a bullet wound you could make out?

Coyotes could have gotten him alive.

Well Dave the reason we think its poached is because nobody hunts to our north, the east is high fenced the south is our lease and the west is the county road. That would only the county road as the "variable". Here is a pic my dad took of his findings. I'm just looking for ideas...

Is there an exit wound?

They left the antlers, IMO I think them suckers would have been gone if poached, just a thought.. Maybe someone shot him and lost him?

Skin his neck out and look for tooth marks.

The picture of the bullet hole is sufficient to say he was shot, guys. Or maybe some guy walked up after the coyotes had eaten him and was just so mad that he shot it on the ground?

No, that's ridiculous.

It's possible that he was shot and ran a really long way before expiring. Or that he was shot a long ways off and it was non-lethal, but crippling and the yotes caught up with him.

But I think given the circumstances described, your gut is probably right in that somebody illegally shot him, and then gave up when they couldn't find him right away. Who knows what really happened though.

"No Poaching" signs are highly ineffective, fyi.

I guess the hole could be a tine hole from a fight with another buck, but that's be odd placement.

Looking at the pic, he looks poached to me.

I hate poachers and trespassers. While walking my place yesterday I found two fresh sets of ATV tracks, one from a fourwheeler and the other from a side-by-side (wider tracks).

I'd call the GW to report it. Even if the GW can't catch them, they like having incidents reported. If there have been several around the area, they might eventually catch them.

Found one two years ago that had an almost identical puncture wound, followed the blood trail back and you could tell by the ground there had been a heck of a fight. Some times it don't pay to be a buck.

Looks like the hole is on top of the back right behind the neck. Not a common place for a bullet to hit, but if the buck lowered his head more than the one he was fighting he could take an antler right there. Both bucks could be in bad shape

Judging by the location of the hole in the pic, determining the cause of it should be easy. Is there an exit hole? If yes, then highly likely it was shot. If no, then cut him open and see if there is any internal damage / shattered bone. If yes, then he was shot, if no, then likely killed in a fight.

Hit by a car and then eaten by coyotes.

Call the GW. They will figure out what happened pretty quickly.

I don't think he was looking for a CSI reconstruction, just some tips on how to scare off poachers - whether this deer was poached, attacked by a black panther or probed by aliens.

Lowe's sells some motion sensor battery operated lights. Put a couple on your fence posts- with some blue plastic over lights.

The best way to scare off poachers is to have people there a lot. Get some friends to hunt hogs and coyotes so it's hard to get there without someone knowing. You just gotta have a big enough place that they can hunt outside of where you're deer hunting.

No Poaching signs are about as effective as Gun Free Zones.

Unfortunately the best way to prevent this type of activity is presence. Make it known you monitor the place closely, let neighbors know you mean business and will prosecute, keep a camera or two hidden on property entries. Signs of activity keep the average poacher at bay. Signs of inactivity normally are an invitation to those scum.

x2....Every time I poach deer I always take the horns.

Another thought - injured deer often head towards water…if you found him by the creek, he may have been shot, or injured in a fight, elsewhere and went to the water afterwards.
I've seen a couple deer that have been wounded by a badly placed shot by hunters on our property, and we've found them dead near our ponds within a couple days after the shot. Coyotes had gotten to them, but we were able to tell they were the deer that had been shot.

We've had poachers at our place before, and they always took the backstraps (only) and ran….left the antlers behind, even on some nice bucks. Hope you aren't dealing with any poachers. Good luck with everything!

I'm thinking the hole is more like a behind-the-diaphragm gut shot. If my eyes aren't lying, I think I see his front left elbow in the upper right corner of the image. His neck and head should be to the right out of the picture. If that's the case, he could go for miles like that.