oldelkhunter

Many moons ago I won a Golden Retriever pup in a raffle. Took her out late season pheasant hunting in NJ . There was about 1/2 foot of snow on the ground. It was a good friend and I and the dog looking for pheasants that day. Coincidentally it was also muzzleloader season at the time . After about an hour of hunting with no success we ran into a very nice deerblood trail and the dog started following it. I put the leash on her and off we went . About 100 yards up the hill another hunter asked if we had seen a little spike buck he had shot and we showed him the trail. We had heard someone shoot about 15 minutes previously and it was indeedhim. Weall thenfollowed the trail the rest of the way up the hill and poof it vanished at the top of the hill except for a very big pool of blood. We also noticed drag marks down the hill along with a a new set of footprints. The Hunter we were with followed the drag marks down the hill and about 5 minutes later we heard screaming and cussing. We knew what had happened. When we got there the 2 were wrestiling and the freshly killed buck was nearby about to be field dressed by the thief. We broke the fight up but the original shooter was pissed when the other guy who did no shooting wouldn't give up the deer. We asked him nicely to hand it over because it was the right thing to do and he refused. At this point the original shooter pulled out his hunting knife and tjhreatened the "Thief" . Before he had a chance to move my friend shot over their heads about 10 feet from them and then threatened to shoot both of them if they continued this nonsense.Cell phones had not been invented otherwise we would have called the Cops or a Game warden. Had we not been there someone would have been killed or left for dead in the woods.Anyway It was a sorry excuse for sportsmanship I have ever seen yet to this day excpet maybe the lunatic that mistook my dog for a pheasant and amost shot the dog and yours truly. I remember it well "Oh I thought the dog was pheasant" as the dog ran thru a hedgerow. a 55 lb golden retriever I guess could be mistaken for a pheasant. [:@]Myhunting partner told him in no certain termsthat there would be no mistake when his shotgun barrel was shoved up his posterior and the trigger pulled. As a result of these 2wonderful experiencesI trust no one except my best friend or my family when I go hunting and I am picky with whom I hunt with. I swing wide of other hunters and hopefully have not had cross hairs put on me anytime in my life but I wouldn't bet the house either.