First of all, congrats on a very nice deer. That would satisfy me for a few years.
I completely understand Chad's comments. You have to assume Chiefdog KNEW it was a deer, but all too often someone "thought" it was a deer in the brush. I can easily see a kid nestling up in a brush top and pulling out some rattling antlers and playing with them out of bordom. Just based on the way Chiefdog's description was written, it leaves a lot of room to question the certainty of the target. In the leases I've had in the past, it you couldn't see a deer clearly enough to count points and estimate age, it was too risky to shoot - not for fear of killing a young buck, but for safety. I'm really surprised this thread isn't 7 pages long at this point. With all of that said, I have to believe that Chiefdog was completely sure it was a buck and just didn't describe it well enough.
