Please dont give up, Track Your Deer!
 

I know this is off Topic as most of my Threads seem to be lately, but this one I hope sinks in.
On one of the Propertys we hunt there's a big Swamp, it borders a neighbors property who hunts also. When my buddy first bought the property we send many many hours building bridges over the swamps feeder creeks and main drain creek from the swamp. If it was'nt for this the only way we could access most of the property was to ware Chest Waders. The neighbors property has some of the same creeks and problems with access to the back 100 acres of his property. Yet you'd think as long as he's owned the property he would have done as we did, build access bridges, but he never has.
This is where the problem starts, 13 years ago when my buddy bought the property we were all sitting in our stands on Opening Day when I (one of our Members) caught movement just at the beginning of light. It was a Human, no 2, no 3. As they walked in front of my stand I confronted them and was PO'd. They said they were the neighbors friends and were headed to the back side of his property and the only way to get there was this way.
I not knowing the relationship with my buddy who owns the land and his neighbor let them pass, this needless messed up my first opening day hunt at our new property, I later called my buddy who owns the property and told him what happend, he also was mad.
My afternoon hunt went just as bad, at 4:10pm here came the same guys dragging a deer that they had shot earlier. I again told them how mad I was that they screwed up my evening hunt by them comming by and they said "It's the only way we can get our deer out because of the swamp" I wanted to tell them Too Freakin Bad, but again let them pass, my opening day at the new property was ruined and we had to do something about the neighbor and his friends.
Well we did talk to the neighbor and told him that no way will this happen again, and if you absolutely have to get a deer out it wont be untill after dark with our permission, no more walking by our stands at dawn or dusk and build your own access bridges like we did, so much for that.
13 years later No access bridges for them even though they did get the hint after a couple more years of this crap and quit comming onto our property to get deer out execpt for a few times with our permission.
This is where my Thread starts and sorry so long I just had to lead up to this. Now befor I even start this our neighbors are the ONLY ones that could possibly have any effect on what OTHER Deer could possibly come onto our property because of the land we both own and the lay of the land and the Swamp.
For years now others in our hunting group and me find Dead Deer on the property, it's none of ours as we all know who and what was shot or shot at and eventually recovered and yes rarely not recovered. Anyway the deer that are found dead are shot from the neighbors property and run into ours and die if the shot is not good. Now we DID tell our neighbor if they ever shoot a deer and it comes onto our property call us and you can track it, we'll even help. No calls, just one dead deer after another. We probably find at least one dead deer a year and sometimes 2 that we did'nt shoot and we know the only other ones that could have shot them are the neighbors crew.
Nothing makes me more SICK then to find a dead deer that was'nt tracked, what a Waste! Now this goes back to the neighbors not building access bridges to there property. They shoot a deer on there land, the deer runs and crosses the swamp or deep creeks and comes onto our property and dies. They may tarck it but when they get to the swamp or deep creeks the GIVE UP, this is there fault, no bridges and No phone calls to us, we'd help but there too LAZY!
Now I know all the deer Runs, and 99% of the deer I find dead on laying dead on a deer run. You know how a deer is, it gets shot and goes for the only thing he knows good, an excape run or deer path.
We have confronted them about this and they always say they did'nt shoot the deer that we found, we know better. Well this opening day my buddy found a 8 pointer that was fresh killed and dead and no one came to claim the prize, a young hunter in our group tagged it, it was warm and fine to eat. Tonight I went to the same property as we had some light snow yesterday and since the property is in Hill Country I went there to catch some glimpses of the fast melting snow to late Muzzleload hunt on. I sat watching a bunch of runs and did see 12 does and a small world record spike but no monster. As I was walking out mabey 30 yds from where I took stand I saw a dead deer. I walked over and saw it was a 4pt laying dead on a deer run eaten by Coyotes. Now I was the last person to hunt the property on Dec 6th when I shot a 6pt and from the looks of it, it died from that time to tonight when I was there. Im sure it came from the neighbors and all they had to do was Track it, but as usuall they came to the creeks or swamp and gave up because they could'nt cross them. They could have called and got permission to go onto our property and track the deer but no call was ever made.
I hate LAZY Hunters and Lazy landowners who dont track a hit or wounded deer, PLEASE if you ever hit a deer and cant find it, try as hard as you can to find it, if you dont have permission to go onto the land you think it went on call the landowner, dont give up. A deer is more than a deer, to me it is anyways and we owe all we can do to find it. I know now all deer can be found as things happen, but try your best. We owe it to the animals we hunt to doour best to recover the game we shoot at.
This is the Pic of the 4pt that I found dead tonight as he laid on a well beaten deer trail. It looks like he just fell over dead right on the trail, then later the Coyotes got him.....Such a WASTE!
Now also I have nothing against Rifle or Shotgun Hunters, But what really makes me shake my head is whan I hear, BOOM....BOOM, BOOM BOOM BOOM.....BOOM. All I think is there shooting at a running deer or multiple running deer and how many were hit, wounded and wont make it that wont be recovered. This is one reason why I choose to only use my Mler to hunt with. 99% of the deer I shoot are shot through the lungs or heart, the other 1% is a neck shot, I recover all my deer. I have one shot and make it count and so should those who fire any weapon, multiple shots are hope and pray shots and should not be considered.
(BP)

Agree....I've worn some guys out on our farms looking for deer that they made a poor shot on...

Amen BP. Good post.

Actually, it didn't go to waste..the coyotes ate pretty good it looks like. :D

I agree one should always give there best effort to try to recover a deer


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Sad but True chaded, I thought the same thing, it all went back to nature in the end.
(BP)

I agree with everything that has been said. There are plenty of hunters that are just plain lazy or go out and shoot at anything that moves because they just like to pull the trigger. If it's easy to recover fine, if not, they figure another will come along. Sick people!

Good post. My father and I used to hunt a piece of property until it was sold out from under us and the new land owner is a tree hugger so that was the end of hunting that property. Anyway we still have a small 5 acre or so adjoining piece of property that we still have permission to hunt. A couple of years ago I shot a deer and went to the "new" landowner of the old property I used to hunt and asked permission to go and retrieve my deer and he responded and I quote "let it rot! I do not condone deer murdering or deer murderers on my property". So after an brief exchange of heated comments I left and went back to where I shot the deer, went to where the deer slid under the fence, sit my gun against a tree and went and got the damn thing anyway! I will take my chances with a getting a ticket than just to let a deer "rot" I am a hunter not a "killer". I can assure you between my father and I we have probably retrieved roughly 10 deer or so that has has crossed onto his property since he told us we weren't allowed but I will be damned if I am going to let a deer lay there to go to waste. The way the 5 acres is layed out it is kind of unavoidable not to hunt close to a property line. Will never go onto his property with my weapon, but I will to retrieve my deer.

Now the property I hunt now when my first deer crossed onto the neighbors property I went to his front door and asked permission and told me to go ahead and find my deer and I don't have to ask permission the next time it happens just go get it, but I still go to his door and tell either him or his wife I will be on there property retrieving a deer.

I don't get some people!

I been at this sport for 47 years and I will say I have taken many many deer over the years and I can say I only lost 4 deer 3 with the bow and 1 with the gun.I will give it my best when it comes to tracking but I feel after a day of tracking I gave it my best shot.
I get pissed off to see a dead deer in the woods what a waste ,this year I came across young spike someone shot from my stand the deer looks like it came threw the hard hat cover ears up which covered the small horns and must of been taken as a DOE .
The area we hunt 4W has a restriction 3 points one side so the shooter must of walk over and seen the horns and just walk away