ORIGINAL: bigcountry
Its really common sense. If you hit a deer with a bad shot and it makes it 100 yards or more and someone puts a bullet in the lungs, its thier deer. All hunters should know a lethal shot. Liver shots are a grey area. So are neck shots. Everybody has thier idea, but I know deep down if I took the deer. And I usually will fight over it if I believe its mine.
BC this is one you and I wont agree on my hunting blood brother ....how many "if'y" shots have been tracked not found...then left over night and found the next day ? I would have to think that MOST second shots would not evenhappen if it wernt for the first one that drew blood....and who is to say what a "leathel" shot is within in hour AFTER the shot....Ihave personal knowledge of a BIG deer that was shot in the right hip and it ran alomost 200 yards before it bled out andgave up the ghost...we found it about 45 min. later ...the hunter who walked up on it could have shot it again and agrued it was not dead and he made the "leathel" shot but he knew the "first blood" rule so there was no incetive for hin to be unethical and thus no fight...always exceptions but in general I say First Blood then there is no judging to be done...I think some might refer to this as "sportmanship"...jmo
dd