Whitetail Deer with Arrowhead Lodged in Skull

This story came to me via email today. Enjoy.

This deer was harvested with a bow on Dec. 30th by Jay Trudell of Delafield, Wisconsin . Jay made a great hit on this deer. It expired inside of 50 yards. On New Years Eve, Jay brought to deer to me to be butchered. I skinned it for a shoulder mount, stopping right behind the ear.


The buck dressed out at 175 pounds and has a good layer of fat on it’s rump. Every indication was that this was a normal, healthy deer. I returned the head to Jay for mounting. After the taxidermist capped the skull, he cut the skull plate to remove the antlers. As he finished the cut, he hit metal. Jay got the skull and antlers back and cleaned them and brought them to be to show me what was inside the brain of this deer. The hide was completely healed and did not give away that there was an injury. The threaded portion of the head had snapped off.




The deer had been shot in a prior season with a Wasp Hammer broadhead. It entered the brain but did not kill the deer. It also passed through the hinge of the jaw and had grown over with bone and prevented the jaw from opening all but the smallest amount. The brain was infected around the puncture wound. I’m not sure which portion of the brain was injured but I suspect it was the part that helps the deer avoid a hunter.





I placed one of my aging jaws next to the skull to show how the jaw hinge should look.


Here you can see the opposite healthy side

The bone had grown over the broadhead and through the vent in the blade and bridged the gap.



The upper left arrow shows how much hinge movement was allowed in the jaw. The opening and closing of the mouth had worn a curved area away


There must be some less that lethal hunters where Jays hunts because 2 years prior to this, Jay’s brother brought me a deer with a damaged hind quarter. Upon removing the meat from that deer I discovered a portion of a broadhead embedded in femur (hind quarter) I included the bone from the opposite (healthy) side of the same deer as a comparison. Both of these injuries were at least a year old. These are tough animals.

I told Jay that from now on, every time he brings me a deer to butcher, I will sweep it with a metal detector to prevent damaging my butchering equipment.