i live and hunt in ohio and typically during shotgun season the person who hits a deer last is the one who claims the deer. i hear about these kind of arguements all of the time. thats why i usually only bowhunt. dunno how it is in other states but here in ohio shotgun season can be one big cluster f**k.

kodiakhuntmaster man that just plain suxors.....here in ohio during bow season the rule of thumb changes. if you make a lethal shot w/a bow and someone else shoots it the deer would IMHO be yours. of course you're probably gonna run into an arguement. but man if this happened when you were 16yrs old....what kind of adult would argue w/a 16yr old kid over a deer especially you're first buck. had that been me that shot your buck and saw after the fact that you had made a lethal shot, i would have let you tag the deer.

james59 sorry about your luck but from my point of view the guy that won the coin toss is the person that should have tagged the deer in the first place.