Huge Buck Sported Ear Jewelry

Chandler Bowen arrowed this DeKalb County 15-point buck on a suburban tract on Monday morning of the opening week of Georgia’s 2024 archery season.

A bowhunter’s elation after killing a 15-point buck quickly turned to concern and dismay when he saw small tags in each of the buck’s ears that said “Call Before Consuming” and listed a DNR phone number.

“My heart dropped,” said Chandler Bowen. “I thought I had done something wrong.”

Chandler lives in Cordele but has a work contract in Atlanta where he rents a house.

“This is the first deer I’ve shot up here. I tried to cover all my bases. This hunting is so different with the small tracts. I talked to a game warden and neighbors, making sure I was perfectly legal and had permission to recover on nearby tracts.”

Turns out, there was nothing to worry about. The buck received the ear tags when it was tranquilized in December 2022 after it got entangled in a soccer net, according to Kaitlin Goode, chief of WRD’s new Communications, Education & Outreach Section.

“The Urban Wildlife Program immobilizes deer that are trapped or entangled, and it is unsafe for staff to handle without them being immobilized,” Kaitlin said. “A couple of examples are bucks with antlers entangled in soccer nets, baseball cage netting or deer that have accidentally jumped or fell into water retention ponds that are too deep for them to escape on their own. We only tag deer if we are handling them with immobilization drugs during hunting season—there is a 45-day withdrawal safety period for human consumption.”

In trail-camera photos, the small tags were not noticeable in the buck’s ears.

Chandler had this buck on camera since mid-summer, and it daylighted several times opening weekend when Chandler wasn’t able to hunt. Monday morning Chandler was set up in a ground blind—the only way he could hunt this spot without bumping deer from a bedding area.

“I hate hunting a ground blind with a bow, and I typically wouldn’t bowhunt mornings back home,” he said.

He watched the buck for about 20 minutes as it worked some rubs, and then the 15-pointer came straight in.

“I typically try not to look at the horns, but that’s all I could look at. Somehow I didn’t get buck fever too bad… it helped that he was at 14 yards.”

The buck fell within 30 yards.

Initially, Chandler took the tags out of the buck’s ears for photos. “I have a friend in south Georgia who killed a big buck that had a hole in its ear, and people ragged him that it was a tagged tame deer.”

Now that he knows the deal, Chandler says he is going to mount the buck with the ear tags in.

“Like a banded a duck.”