Let me first say, I haven't read all of the posts...........

Ok, I'll TRY to answer these questions..(great thread BTW Tony!)

Let me first precursor this by saying I would NEVER put myself in this situation. If I KNEW the other land owner was adamant about not letting anyone on his/her property, I would stay as far away as possible. That being said here is what I would do (I think)

Scenario #1 I wouldn't shoot, this is an easy choice for me, I'd just let the deer walk.

Scenario #2 This one isn't so easy to answer. I've never been in this situation before and hope I never will.
That being said please allow me some leeway here ok?

1. If I wasn't 100% sure how adamant the owner would be about trespassing, I would go ask if it was ok to get my deer. If he said "no" I would try to get help from the local DNR, but knowing the laws here in Illinois I know I'd be S.O.L.

2. Knowing in advance the hard fast position of the land owner, I wouldn't even go ask, (I wouldn't be there in the first place but I digress)I'd just show up at his door with the DNR to ask for permission, againthe answerwould probably still be S.O.L. but at least the DNR KNOW there is a dead deer and they would probably make the land owner jump through hoops to get it, this may just be enough for him to say "just go get it". The scenario above would give the land owner time to go get the deer and hide it before I arrived back with the DNR.

I don't think there would be a situation where I would just jump the fence, get my deer and jump back, again the operative word is "think" because I've never been in that situation. I'd like to believe I'd act accordingly.......

Again, knowing the land owner was a first grade jerk, I wouldn't be there in the first place.

To me it's simple.....it's just a deer, no matter how many points on it's head, and no deer is worth violating another man's personal rights.