Yes......by gawd they do!!!

In my camp, I am known as the big pumpkin for all the orange I wear.

Boys, we are novices but you don't have to hit us over the head with a wet mop to get our attention. I hunted a little meadow we found this year while doing some ridge running early first season. My brother and his father-in-law hunted that same meadow later that day. There are some desert big horns in this area that we have had the privilege of seeing on a couple of occasions and now several of them came bounding out into the meadow and then dissappeared. Then they saw a couple guys step out of the trees and into the meadow (about 500 yds away). Guessing that the two fellows saw them too, as they then moved off into the edge of the trees they come out of. But a few minutes later, they heard boom! boom! and saw the guys scrambling further up the valley in the edge of the trees. They were moving around frantically. Then a few minutes later they saw the guys quickly walking back down to where they first appeared.

Now this being public land, happens all the time I suppose. When I met up with them after dark and excitedly asked if that was them shooting, they said no and relayed their story. We thought either they jumped elk up in the trees or they just shot them so sheep! A no-no and as ethical hunters we would pass this info along to those that deal with such.

Jump to the next morning. My brother kills a bull in that same little valley. I walk from about 2 miles away just to get in on the soiree!!! As I cross a 4wd road between us, I see a blood trail. Bleeding pretty good and fairly fresh. After the kill is taken care of, several of us focus on this blood trail. We track it to it's source and our curiosity is only aroused further. We find where whatever it is has been shot. Looks to be a big animal and there is blood everywhere. Ground is tore up. But then some things are not right. No gut pile. No nothing. Blook is splattered 4 or 5 foot up the sides of aspen trees. No down here a tough old Whitetail shot in the wrong place has been known to lay down for a few hours, then up and run again for a long ways with a massive amount of blood loss. But this was confusing to say the least. Our concern that an animal was suffering somewhere was lessened by the fact that we found horse tracks and dog tracks all along the blood trail. Horse crap was fresh too. So as the trail of blood became too spotty to follow, we were sure that whoever was on this horse was on it! Dog was doing his part as every time we found blood, we found dog tracks and horse prints.

Long story with unbelievable ending.................damn fools had shot a man's horse!!!! Horse! Tied to a tree!!!! Assume that the man wasn't on it at the time, but then never dealt with horse shooters before. I am not the biggest fan of the horse and on occasion would have shot one if I would have had gun in hand, but that another story altogether!!!!
DOW man came by the next day and ran into one of our hunting partners. Told him the horse belong to a doctor and he was able to patch up the horse and walk him back down to the valley and the vet. Said they thought the horse would make it. Solved our mystery and created sudden awareness among hunters like us......grew up hunting since we were kids and took for granted that some things just couldn't happen!

Now some would call what happened an "accident"! Not me brother. That was a mistake.....pure and simple. Accident can't be helped. Mistake can and that mistake made believers of the rest of our camp. All orange all the time! Someone shoots me it is murder.......no other explanation for it. But then I can't find one for shooting a horse either???? If you have an excuse for this type of "mistake", please chime in. I would love to hear it. On second thought, don't respond. I already assume that if you are on this website, you have more sense than that. Please don't prove me wrong!

These were locals (Co). We gave the DOW descriptions and they already had the vehicle identified as well. I know these types only constitute a very small number of hunters, but please don't take anything for granted. We can all opine on the calibers and such (see other threads), but this is something we can all agree on, better safe than sorry. Be safe. Don't take anything for granted, even your fellow hunters!

Sounds like whoever was responsible for that showed their sutpidity in more than one way. I mean if your gonna shoot a horse that is twice the size of a cow elk and the dang thing is tied to a tree you must be a real idiot if you can't even hit it well enough to kill it. I can't believe the thing could be patched up and walked off the mountain. That story is pretty funny and just plain stupid at the same time.

RedRiver,

Chuckle, I can believe it....

A couple thoughts:

1. Overall, non-res hunters are "better" than a large portion of the residents, many of which are just out for a weekend lark --- 30.25 for the license and $50.00 for a tank of gas and "run up" and see if they can score an elk --- gone by Sunday nite; sooo many of these guys are amateurs of the worst sort. IMHO, a disproportionalely high number of non-resident hunters tend to be much more serious, committed, knowledgable, and much less "time-splattered".

2. I am always amazed by folks who visit our camp all decked out in camo with no more than the legal 400 inches of orange and then they question my blue jeans and hunter orange everything else --- you don't want to be in THESE woods looking like anything else but a florescent human form!

3. We tie orange and lime green survey tape in our horses mane and tail and then on the bridle, panniers, and saddle. If we are packing out an elk head we tie tape on the antlers. Too many over-excited idiots out there!

EKM

Some of the guys questioned my brother that very morning about why he was tieing orange tape around the horns of his kill for the ride back to camp!!! Wasn't his first hunt up there either! I feel validated wearing my pumpkin suit now!

Paraphrasing it comes down to the investment.......not that all non-res's are capable, but most have invested time/money/resources that would weed out most of the incompetent ones. But lord knows we have plenty of idiots down here!!!! One of our crew wore his carhart overalls last year with the requisite orange on top. Showed him a picture of himself I took of him from about 300 yards away, carrying his rifle over his shoulder. Convinced him and idiot could mistake him for some sort of mutant spike, especially with the color of brown.

Hopefully those boys have been removed from the hunting population, at least for a while.
RBH......you should have seen the amount of blood that we trailed and was at the site of the shooting! I suspect that if the owner hadn't been a Doc himself, that horse wouldn't have made it. One of those stories that if you had told me and I not seen it with my own eyes and ears, I would want to call bullstuff!!!
My hunting partners couldn't wait for me to post this thread as they felt that hunting/harvesting elk happens every year............but a horse shooting surely is rare. Let's hope it is a once in a lifetime event.

When I lived in WV--my home state--a couple of years ago there was an article in one of the local newspapers about a "hunter" from NYC--NEW YORK CITY?--yes. Any way he pulled up to a local game checking station/country store to report his kill--which is mandatory. When he went inside an announced that he had killed a mule deer--everyone wanted to see it b/c of the lack of mule deer in WV--none. They went out to his truck to discover that he had shot a mule. Not only that, but he had field drwessed it and put it in the back of his truck (imagine the smell from that thing)--the proper authorities were called and restitution and fines were paid according to the article--what a laugh those spectators must have had.
Also, a good friend of mine who is an excellent hunter was on some public land back in WV and came across a guy who was dragging out an albino spike buck which my friend said was really a feral goat--He never even told the guy.
Idiots can be funny until the do something dangerous.
Good luck all

I have heard some stupid things from time to time, but the most stupid thing I have ever seen is a hunter in archery season attach branches to the top of his horse's bridal. He was walking behind his horse and trying to bugle. At first I thought it was a joke of some kind but after talking to the guy he was sure he had came up with a brillinat way to call in a elk. To this day I still can't believe how stupid this guy was. The problem here was that he was from Pennsylvania and hadn't educated himself in the art of elk hunting, so that he knew what would work and what wouldn't. He was also lucky that it wasn't gun season. That horse would have been taken quick!

Ever hear Jeff Foxworthy line about his brother-in-law getting shot at during deer season sitting in his driveway?????
Said it was his own fault...........he was sitting in brown car after all!!!!

Here is something to concider...

I just retired from the Army and this is my firs year to do any real hunting since I was a kid. I didn't know how much orange I was supposed to ware and my wife (ever helpful) looked it up on the internet. As she was doing so she came accross the 2003 U.S. hunting accedents stats. It was interesting to learn that by in large more people are shot while wearing hunter orange than those that weren't wearing it. I don't know were she found that information but I thought it was ironic. As she put it, "There should be a law against giving a licence of ANY kind to stupid people".