I'm not sure if it's the law or simply an entrenched custom here in PA but any hunter will tell you the last shot into the deer while it's on its feet is the rightful owner.

I dont happen to agree. I've given up two different rifle shot deer after seeing that the shot before was fatal AND that the previous hunter was following up.

I had a bowhunting situation where I hit a bit far back and got one lung, liver and guts. Signs of all three were at the hit site so we backed off and came back three hours later. We tracked the deer in snow and the tracks shoed that was bleeding heavily and fell down several times.She made it about 300 yards onto another property and fell in front of another bowhunter. He got down out of his tree and walked up and shot it on the ground. When we gotthere, he got real nervous and told us he had shot it on its' feet but the evidence in the snow definitely said otherwise. rather than get into an arguementthat no one would win, I walked away.