An update to the water logged buck.
Friday afternoon I went out to see if he was still in the lake before calling the authorities to get a salvage tag. The area game officer was just finishing up for the day after an afternoon of chainsaw action on a nearby prairiefication project (is that even a word??) when I flagged him down. I explained that I was going down to the lake to see if he was still there. He told me to call him when I brought the head out and he would issue a salvage tag.
Walking down to the lake, flock after flock of geese were leaving the roost to go get their feedbag on, and I was able to be in the right place at the right time and knocked down a small Canada goose. Getting down to the lake's edge, I started to search for the buck. Another flock of geese took off, and I knocked down one more. Bouncing off a tree, a much larger Canada would be going home with me.
The north breeze told my nose that I needed to go uplake to find his putrefying body. Peeking around the corner, I could see his driver side antler and some of his body sticking up out of the ice.
I called the game officer to tell him that I would be needing the salvage tag, and I suggested that I meet him wherever he was, so that he wouldn't need to come back out to the wildlife area. We arranged to meet back in town, so after I cut his slimy stinking head off, and wrapped it in the tarp I had brought, it was time to load up and head back to meet the officer.
Meeting the officer as arranged, he filled out the tag, with my name, address, location, type of animal salvaged, and then had me sign the tear-off portion of the tag. I acknowledged that the State of Kansas was holding itself harmless if I became ill from my handling/eating of the carcass, and then signed it. The officer told me that he wanted to see the buck, so we went down to the back of my SUV. Pulling the tarp wrapped buck out of the back, I commented that the blood on the antler was from the geese I had shot this afternoon.
I purchased some trashbags at the convenience store to try and keep the buck's stink from permeating the car. I figured that 4 layers would be enough. I might have been happier with 5 in retrospect.
Euro mount coming which will show his funky extra browtines and stickers. I believe that I saw this buck last year, but he had the drop on me with my bow across my legs.