We' ve all heard of or been involved in a situation where someone has " taken" someones elses animal. If you shoot it but it runs off two miles and someone else finishes it, is it still yours? So I was wondering what everyone practices in their neck of the woods?

The first person to shoot.

If there is a bullet hole in the animals vitals then the animal belongs to the first one to fire the fatal shot. If some yack off shoots an animal in the leg or some other nonfatal shot then that guy that does not deserve the animal and it goes to the person that does end up firing the fatal shot.

Basically the first person to fire a fatal shot.

AAAAHHHHEMM Excuse me Sir/Madam........................... would you kindly step away from my harvest.................... BEFORE I TEAR OFF YOU FREAKING HEAD AND P%#@ DOWN YOUR THROAT......
Just Kidding!
Seriously I don' t know what I' d do if someone were to try and claim MY animal
AL

I have had this happen to me a couple of times, once when i was a kid, shot a nice buck in the next, did not drop it, tracked it for a quarter of a mile and it ran into a drive hunt where they finished it off. i was outnumbered 15 to 1. happened again later in life, was hunting alone, wounded a deer, found it about 200 yards away and had three hunters (yea right) walk up to me and claim the deer. i have also finished off a few deer for others over the years and gave them to the person that first shot it. my feelings on this, even tho i was slightly pissed at the time, is it is only an animal, not worth getting shot over.

I had a deer " taken" away from me when I was a kid (16) and will never forget it. Still to this day (20 years later) haven' t forgotten about this, he is a family friend (not to me anymore though). Me personally, I go by first blood. I' m not going to tag a deer/elk that someone else shot first. If I put it down for good and see that there is another hole there I would wait for the other hunter to show up. But if it were reversed and I put a bad shot on a deer/elk, I wouldn' t complain either if the person who put it down would tag it.

Anyone who first fires a fatal shot AND follows the trail to the dead animal, regardless of whether or not someone else finishes it off, deserves the animal.

Anyone who doesn' t give the animal to the first person is a total jerk.

Legally, in most states it is the last person to shoot it that has legal ownership. That means if you knock a deer down, but it lifts its head, I can shoot it and legally claim it. Not right in my book

did i see the word JERK in your reply? you can' t be talking about fellow sportsmen.

In our party the guy that puts the first bullet in the deer gets the deer, no matter who finishes off, however we usually try to get the original shooter the opportunity first to finish off what he started. Many years ago when we were mule deer hunting in the flat lands of the south we spotted a large mulie buck with some does from the trail we were on, as 2 truck hit the binders 4 guys bailed out and began shooting at this buck. In the end the buck hand 4 holes in it, we had no way to tell who put it down or who' s deer it was. We decided that to flip a coin, stupid but it was the only way to solve the problem and it did. We have learned from that day to hunt on our own with ample range between others and if the chance arrives where more than one guy can shoot, the first guy to take aim gets to shoot at the deer...maybe not ideal but it saves us all the other hassle, b/c nobody wants to admit they missed!

Now if your talking a deer going to different parties, it gets much tougher then!!! I would just let the signs and situation dictate itself, I would hate to lose an animal to a j#rk but like Lee said " it ain' t worth being shot over" . If i had an animal come by that was wounded but not fatal, well I am sure I would put it down...just because I don' t like to see game suffer. If a guy showed up and claimed it, I would probably say your welcome and to get himself to the range. Hunting is my hobby, release and passion I would let some sob ruin it!!!

Since I hunt private or very remote land almost exclusively I have not not faced this problem.My own belief is that the first person to fire a fatal bullet into the animal deserves to keep it.I don' t buy the first blood idea as a flesh wound or other obviously non -fatal shot does not deserve the animal.