Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum It's amazing how resilient they can be.

In 2015 I had lots of pics of a funny racked young buck who suddenly lost a leg in December. I had planned on shooting him after that to put him out of his misery but never saw him.
Then last season I see him following does and checking a scrape so I figured he's made it this far and might as well see what happens.
I checked the camera here for the first time today and there he is again. His rack has regained a little normalcy this year as well. It's just amazing that he keeps on avoiding predators. Might just turn into a good deer in a year or two. The pics are in order from first year until now.

The pictures prove that bad racks do get better. I would not have thought so.

Those deer are really cool. I had one that was missing a back leg that showed up for several years before finally disappearing. I had him dead to rights with my crossbow the first time I ever saw him as a 2-3 year old deer and I almost shot him due to his injury…..but I let him go because I had already shot a good buck opening day of bow season and we were only a couple weeks into the season. I’m glad I did. I never got another shot at him but I saw him on camera for 3 more seasons. It was always amazing to see him show back up again. He finally just never showed up any more. You would never believe by looking at his rack or body that he was a fully mature deer…..

Yeah, the rack returning to "normal" was a little surprising to me as well. He's way behind his peers on body size, but that's to be expected I guess. I'm just hoping at this rate he's able to make it a few more years to see what he can become. I wish I had saved better pictures than I did, but really didn't expect him to survive.

a lot of those bucks will grow normal racks after several years.

He may grow up and surprise you

Pretty dang cool. I don't knowing I've ever seen a 3 legged deer. Amazing he has survived

That's pretty cool. I had a doe that was missing the same leg behind my house for about 4 years. I ground checked it on the last evening of deer season. I felt kind of bad about it. My Wife still wonders what happened to "limpy".

When my Dad was a kid, he found a 6 point that was down in a creek with one leg shot off but still hanging by a small piece off tissue.

Man that's cool.

lol at MDP and "Limpy"

I've got a doe on my place missing a back leg. When she runs you can't tell she dosen't have a leg and is as fast as any other deer.

I got a fawn one time that had a huge hole bit out of his chest right behind the front legs. We called him Gator because it looked like a gator bite!!! Stitched up what we could and put him on large doses of antibiotics for bettern a month. He lived and did well.

Here’s the one I was talking about that used to live at my place…..

When we dog hunted I shot a three legged deer that was running flat out. You would've never known he was missing the bottom joint.

That buck will never win an ass kicking contest.

My vet told me once a dog can function fine with 3 legs.

Not sure how that translates to a deer in the wild though.

I’ve had encounters with a number of 3 legged deer now while blood tracking that resulted from poor shots. It’s amazing how fast they can still run on three legs when one of the front legs are blown off. A lot of these leg shot calls are unrecoverable unless the dog can just get the deer hemmed up somehow. We chased one around in circles last year for 5 miles before it ran over onto the neighbors. I saw it get up out of the bed and take off down the edge of a clearcut with Otis on its arse……. and let me tell you it was sho nuff scootin on 3 legs. They don’t fair so well missing a back leg though…..we recovered a couple last year with back legs blown off. The deer is much more handicapped without a back leg.

my dog Taz and I recovered one that was shot just above the hoof on a front leg. Taz bayed it three times before we could get a shot at the deer and put it down. Had to sneak into maybe 50 yards for the shot. I told the hunter it was leg shot within 50 yards of tracking it, but NOOO, they shot it in the shoulder. same leg just different end of it....

Talkin about some bad shots and three legged deer…..here ya go. The, “it’s not my deer”, buck. It was also clipped way back in the guts but still good and alive when we found it…..it just couldn’t get away with its back leg immobilized on top of the gut wound. The funny thing is that this was actually in a high fence and the hunter had told everyone that we were looking for a GOOOOD buck. His buddies already had the cooler hanging full of bucks ranging from 130”-160” too….When we jumped this little buck Otis stopped him within 100 yards and had the deer frozen still for a shot…..I called Otis off and told the hunter to shoot it…… when he says…..”That’s not my deer!! My deer was WAY bigger than that!!!!”…..I told him there was no way that wasn’t his deer……..to shoot it before it took off again!!....and there wasn’t any doubt it was his deer either, it wasn’t no more than 300 yards out and we tracked straight to it….plus he had already told me the deer was messed up in the back end……

Well, we’re standing there having a debate back and forth about whether it was or wasn’t his deer…..all the while this deer is just wide eyed as hell at about 40 yards and ready to bolt any second…..I’m holding Otis with him going ape chit wanting to get back after the deer when finally the hunter decides that it indeed it has to be his deer and he takes the shot to finish it off………and misses it at 40 yards!!!!! The deer takes off again……

Long story short we finally got it but dadgum it was some bad chootin. People get excited when they see antlers and people get REAL excited when dogs go to barking and deer go to runnin……

Dang that's rough lol.