Just a bit more babble on a sambar deer that a mate took one morning with me.He and his brother had arrived from Tas the day before and i had a quick hunt planned for them before we left for a walk in hunt a day later.

(SpotX photo)

Arriving at spot X we sneaked around until two deer one a spikey the other a stag jumped together from underneath the boys from some thick cover,well two brothers nailed two brothers and we were a happy bunch that day.On returning home seeing we were leaving next night for our hunt we hung them till the morn then commenced the cut up and while doing so i noticed that the stag had the tell tale signs of arthritis in one hind leg and had a lot of curious streaks of a grey paste like substance which i now know were bullet particles of lead,further boning out left me with a hind leg that had a calcified lump the size of a big orange midway between the hip and knee where some time previously this deer had been hit by some hunters bullet and seeing that most of the time one only see`s the dissappearing arse of sambar deer i figured that is where the bullet stuck (from behind) this deer was fat shiny and sleek and according to the mate on asking him how its gait was he said he could not discern any difference from an unwouded deer`s gait.
I deduced that the deer on being shot had a large piece of bone taken out (approx 5 inches) which left two shattered ends that over the ensuing years had knitted together leaving the calcified lump and a shorter leg which as i said before apparently with at that time left the deer with no ill effects.
It never ceases to amaze me being a first hand witness to this and i only wish that i had kept the bone.Nitro i will send you a pic to post of the deer above and note forum members it is a stag as it has coronets something a spikey dosent,of course the wounding put paid to the deer growing a normal set of antlers as its healing/survival process took up its energy reserves. The pic shows the mate with my 5 mth old soon to be a superdog pup that found the deer in thick scrub for us.

Photos added by NitroX