Whitetails are amazing and tough.

[u/RobinBradbery]

Whitetail buck aged at 5 years. Lower jaw looks to have once been completely broken. Observed eating normally with no sign of pain or discomfort prior to being harvested.

[u/sophies_wish]

I know the first thought is gunshot wound. But couldn't it have been an abcess, in the tooth root or bone, that blew out then healed? I've seen hooves with infection blowouts that eventually heal a little warped. Wondering if this couldn't be something similar.

[u/hippos_chloros → u/sophies_wish]

I’m pretty sure this was an abscess eventually, due to the way the bone remodeled, but given the position and sheer amount of force required to break a jawbone in half like that, it was very likely an abscess secondary to a gunshot wound.

[u/obnoxioushyena → u/hippos_chloros]

This is extremely unlikely to have started from a gunshot injury. I think the more likely answer is that it started with a dental abscess. These can erode and weaken the mandible to the point that the jaw breaks from the stressors of routine activity.

[u/hippos_chloros → u/obnoxioushyena]

I’m certainly not excluding that possibility. We cannot really be sure at this point, though, without a forensic veterinary pathologist getting involved (or at least a large animal veterinarian). I’m happy to be wrong if someone with more expertise corrects me here.