The shooting happened near Tenbury Wells in early December after a neighbour told the man that they had seen a black panther roaming nearby after walking through a field.
The man, who was curious to see if they exist and regularly goes out shooting muntjac and pheasants, didn’t think much of it until he too saw a ‘big black animal’ in the area.
He asked his neighbours whether they were missing a black dog or a black sheep but none were missing.
A couple of weeks later the man saw the animal around 150 yards away whilst hunting in a neighbouring field and decided to ‘shoot it to see what it is’.
The man said: “I live out near Tenbury Wells and a neighbour said they had seen a big black animal.
“I made enquires into whether someone had lost a black Labrador or a black sheep but no one had.
“I was out hunting with my dog because I do a lot of shooting and a looked into the next orchard and saw a big black animal at least 150 yards away.
“My neighbour thought it might be a big cat, like a panther, and I thought it might be too but to get rid of any doubt I decided to shoot it to be able to see what is was.
“I was shocked because it was a black muntjac deer which I had never seen before.
“That got me thinking of all the stories you hear about potential big cat sightings in the area and I thought maybe they weren’t panthers and maybe they were black muntjac deer.
“I just thought people needed to know that maybe what they are seeing are actually muntjac because when I saw it from far away it could have been a black panther.”