Belle Island

PAbearman, the problem with that is, after about 15 minutes of feeding he circled around behind my tree and winded me, I' m not sure if he will be back any time soon. I guess I will find out.

hdsanders

Way to stick by the rules. We have set rules on our land and there are fines to be paid if you don' t follow them. Hopefully, you will get another shot when you can take him.

JUSTINL

Way to Go!

Ethics will always be rewarded in the long-run.

Chrisvst

Here' s one..Don' t know if it break the PA rules, but probably does..

A few years back I arrowed a buck, lost the blood trail the next morning after 200 yards and thought I had lost the animal. Looked for 8 hours before giving up. Then I tried the last resort... I borrowed my friend' s bird dog (german SHP), put him on a leash and took him to the spot where I last found blood. The dog on the leash walked in a zig-zag pattern 0.5 miles right up to the dead buck ...which I happily recovered. This dog was not trained for this sort of thing and must have walked by dozens of fresher deer trails, but stayed on my wounded buck' s trail. I am not sure if this is legal, but I' d do anything to recover an animal.

Jimimac

And that my friend, is ethics, doing the right thing when nobody else is around.

That' s great that you are playing by the rules and all, but how about a little more humble? I' m sure to get hammered on this one but it just comes across to me as a tad self righteous. Ethics can also be about doing the right thing when nobody else is around and not bragging about it.

Belle Island

Jimimac, sorry if you took my tone the wrong way. I wasn' t bragging about anything, I' d be bragging if I would have killed the buck! I was basically stating how ethics can sometimes cost you a deer. Also, it helps to relieve the frustration.

Jimimac

Sorry about my earlier post. I did take the tone the wrong way and I hesitated greatly before even responding. Sometimes when using this medium for communication things don' t always come out right or are interpreted incorrectly. Once again, you did the right thing when you were tested, and I also apologize for being a boob. Jim

Belle Island

No problems here, I removed the smart a$$ remark above.

rather_be_huntin

First I' m glad I live out west. I don' t hafta worry about leases, membership rules or anything like that. Just miles and miles of public land.

Second there are ethics as far as the law is concerned. If its legally an anterless deer, its an anterless deer. That means its legal and ethical, but I probably wouldn' t have shot it either. I' d have a hard time passing up the buck of a lifetime just to appease membership rules. I probably would' ve shot the buck and made sure I went back and got a doe to keep the management plan in harmony.

Third you should have self imposed ethics. All hunters should have an self-written ethics book that includes game all laws and exceeds the law in some cases. As a man the important thing we can do is look ourselves in the mirror without shame. I' d say even though I might not have done the same congratulations on being a true sportsman with your own code of ethics.

Belle Island

rather_be_huntin and others, let me clear something up, I did not consider that buck a " buck of a lifetime" , I have had many and will have many encounters with bucks of that caliber. With that being said, It would have been the my best to date and I hated to let him pass. If it would have truly been a once in a lifetime type buck...... Say a 150 class or up....... Who knows, I haven' t faced that decision yet.