Home sick from work 2 days ago with a wicked summer cold I watched a show on the Outdoor Channel, I think it was Archer' s Choice? Well, the show " guy" was sitting in his treestand off a field edge about 50 yards in Illinois and he hit his rattling horns. A buck slipped in behind them and surprised them so they quickly spun the camera on the deer and he took a pretty quick shot at the deer. It was clearly evident on the film he had gut shot the deer, they followed the deer with the camera and he didn' t go far, and he was hunched up pretty bad. The host of the show turns to the camera and tells how he had been concentrating on the deer and the yardage (32 yards) and had failed to see a small branch and he had his shot deflected low and back on the deer. The host of the show after watching the deer get up and bed down a few times decides to back out and come back the following morning.

The next morning they zoom in from a distance on the carcass of the buck on the field edge right near the stand sight. It was 90% eaten by coyotes. The next camera shot was the hunter with just the head and rack with his tag on it. Now he had a few more days he could have hunted, but he did the right thing IMHO and tagged the animal he killed.

I have never been in this situation myself but have known a few people who have, and some of these people have made different decisions than the guy above. I guess my question to anyone who cares to write their opinion is what would you do if your buck was eaten by coyotes before you recover it? What would you do if it was a doe you shot? I' m curious for anyone who says tag the buck but not the doe because he has horns you can keep if you think that is ethical? Would it matter if the horns had been chewed?

I would tag either one - no question.

I would bring the deer to DEC and see if I could get another tag.

If I could not...well to bad...thats how it goes sometimes.

I would do what Rack Attack said, exactly. Chances are you may get another tag.

Well a few hunters i know would just leave and go on hunting which i my mind is wrong,,,,,if i am hunting and shoot a deer and 75-90% of it get eaten by predators i will tag it just like i would if the deer hadn' t been harmed

Ditto what rack said.

I' m glad to hear that at least they acknowledged that they had a bad hit and showed and discussed it on the show. Most shows edit out those takes and only show the pretty stuff that' s PC.

WV,

They probably had no choice.

Kinda hard to justify a perfect double lunger that dropped in sight - with half its torso chewed to pieces...LOL

I would think that if you' re honest about it and took it to the proper authority, they would give you another tag. If not, better luck next year!
Mike,-

I would tag it, but that is easy for me to say honestly, because in Va. you can kill 3 buck and almost 100 doe as long as you are willing to pay for bonus tags. My hat is off to them for being honest about a bad shot and tagging the deer.

tag it no matter what! can anyone say zaft? besides it being the ethical thing to do it' s all part of hunting and it' s only fair to the animal and other hunters, you shot yours why should you get another one unless you have another tag!

My question to all of you who suggested asking the game dept for another tag is this. Why do you feel that making a poor shot, whether intentional or not and not recovering the deer until it' s been eaten by other predators entitles you to another tag. How often are perfectly healthy deer taken down by coyotes. Let' s be realistic, if you know you hit that deer in the guts then you killed it and it is removed from the herd whether you get to eat it or not. I respect all of you who would tag it but feel it' s unethical to ask for another tag because you didn' t get to eat it. I think an additional question is in order. What if that deer is never recovered? Do you keep hunting even though you know you' ve made a lethal hit on one deer?
TJ