Do you actually consider them hunters?

Saturday Nov. 30, I had been bow hunting various stands in a 25-30 acre stand of old growth pines on public land the previous two days. Seen does each day. Saturday morning at 8:30, snowing like crazy, a small doe walks under my stand, I watch her for 3-4 minutes knowing the whole time this is a .5 year old and I was not going to take her. She walks off to the east and drops down into a ravine of a feeder creek.

About ten seconds later I see her coming out of the ravine only now she's walking with a limp, keeping her right hind leg up off the ground. As she gets closer I see her tarsal gland was blood red. At this point my heart drops to the pit of my stomach. The only one that hunts on the opposite side of the ravine is a very good friend who is handicapped and hunts with a crossbow. So I'm thinking to myself, "Did Frank shoot at her?".

I watched where she disappeared and sat looking towards where she popped-up after being hit. About five minutes or so, I see an orange hat moving and seen it wasn't Frank. It was someone who had overheard me telling my hunting partner that I had spooked up two does walking out of the woods the past evening.

I am aware of the public land domains and have had a number of people walk into the woods I hunt not knowing anyone else was there. Usually these people can't sit still more than half an hour and they're gone, most of the time sending deer back into the area when they leave. I got no problem with their right to be there. This has happened as many if not more times on the private lands I hunt. Not a issue here.

The goober walks up the bank some 40 yards to the north of where the doe came out and looks up at one of my other stands. I get his attention by waving my orange hat, it's the last weekend of gun season. He sees me and I motion for him to come my way. He comes through the woods with his hands and his bow above his head trying desperately to look like ROCKY! Yelling "I got one, I got one".

I tell him where I noticed the hit was. He proceeds to tell me about the shot. Where he was standing under Franks' loc-on to where the doe entered the ravine was 55-60 yards. The slob goes on to say that he "arched" an arrow at her and missed, then tried another.

I put him on her tracks, very sparce blood, one or two drops every ten to fifteen feet. Arrow went through between the hamstring tendion and the rear of the femur just above the tarsal gland. She crossed the river and this dufus and his son go around to the north side to track her, they push her for another two miles until giving up.

Sad part about this is this idiot used to be my next door neighbor and turned me on to this public area. It didn't take long to find out where his hunting ethics and morals were. In the garbage can!

I disassociated myself from him and found areas away from this guy. I hunt better than that and don't want to be confused with his type.

Sorry this ran long, but thanks for letting me vent. People like that give hunters a bum wrap because I am a hunter, they are scab slobs walking around with weapons in their hands. Does anyone agree or not??


















Shoot often - Hunt always