News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Brandon Holmen of Sisters inspecting a three-point mule deer buck found dead at the Sisters Airport.
The mule deer archery season had its ups and downs this year due to fire closures, which may have brought the hunters closer to town than usual.
Evidence of this was found early Monday morning, September 13, by Kaitlyn Gunn of Sisters, who was out walking her dog, Ryno.
About 7:50 a.m., Ryno - a little yapper, not much bigger than a cat - suddenly went into the excited dog mode and led Gunn to the victim of archery season that didn't make it into someone's meat locker: a three-point buck shot through the stomach, lying across the roadway near David Clemens' equipment yard on the south side of Sisters Airport.
Gunn immediately called her friend Brandon Holmen of Energynerring Solutions, Inc, who has offices at the airport, to come and inspect the deer. He found that indeed it was a victim of an arrow.
Brandon called the Deschutes County Sheriff, who instructed him to call the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife, who told him to call the Oregon State Police. OSP sent out a wildlife officer from Redmond who then dragged the dead deer off the Clemens' property into a wild portion of the airport, where it will be recycled by turkey vultures and coyotes.
Chuck Stahn, a long-time archery hunter (who got his elk this season in Washington), wondered if the hunter even knew the deer had been hit.
"These new, powerful, compound bows shoot an arrow so fast," he said.
Stahn also thought the hunter would have a difficult time tracking the gut-shot deer as there is very little, if any, blood seeping from such a wound.
If the deer ran into a thicket and was quickly hidden from the hunter, chances are it would stay out of sight, run off undetected and eventually die.
"It may have headed back for town where it felt safe, but whatever happened, it took a long time to die," Stahn said.
Marvin Benson, who has his wood-working shop near the place where the deer was discovered, said, "Wasted game such as this gives real meaning to the old saying among hunters: 'If you're not sure of your shot, don't shoot.'"
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