rangerstud620

I was on stand all day today and had to see something twice that I hope I never have to see again. I noticed 2 bucks moving behind me around noon. I happened to see that one of them seemed to be limping. He was a young 8 pt, but definetly had some great potential. When he stepped out of the brush, my heart sank. Someone had just about blown his front left leg off. I' m assuming it was a rifle hunter since I don' t think an arrow could do damage like that. He was not moving very well at all. It was not a pretty sight to say the least. I checked for blood after I left my stand but did not see any. I don' t think he will make it through the winter though.

A little later I saw a doe behind me and noticed she too was limping. My heart sank again when I saw that her back left leg was barely attached thanks to an awful rifle shot. I could see both her back legs were bloody. She layed down for about 5 minutes and then got up and took off running past me. As she came by, I could see where another awful rifle shot had grazed her back taking fur off down to the skin. She was in real rough shape and made a sickening sound when she layed down. About 15 minutes later, 3 people came by tracking her. I told them that they blew her back leg off and the one kid kind of laughed about it. About a half hour and 4 shots later, I believe they finally finished her off after tracking her for about 3/4 mile. I will put any amount of money on it that she was hit when she was booking it across a clearing.

I would have liked to take both deer out of their misery but neither presented a clean shot. Stuff like that makes me sick and I hope I never have to see it again.

BowHuntingFool

Yeah I agree that SUCKS!!!!!

tabby

I see this all of the time. And people have the nerve to say archery hunters wound deer. BS!!!!!!

CLOUD 9, MN

Thats really to bad. I wish gun hunters thought as much about maximum shooting distance and quick clean ethical shots like most of the bowhunters do.

Good Luck!

rangerstud620

I agree Cloud 9. It seems when many gun hunters see a deer, they just start shooting hoping to hit anything...no matter what kind of shot it is. I was glad to see the doe was at least being tracked. Many people that hunt where I do wouldn' t track the thing for 30 yds, let alone 3/4 mile.

fuzzjocky2

if i see a deer that is real bad off i woudn' t wait for the good shot far as i am concerned all bets are off and will let an arrow fly

ShadowAce

I' ve heard that a lot of gun hunters close their eyes at the instant they pull the trigger and end up pulling the gun downward from the vitals and onto the front leg by accident. I' m not taking up for them, but that' s why you see a lot of front leg injuries.

Scar955

It is a shame to see what some unethical hunters (I don' t care if they are bow or rifle...unethical is unethical!!!) will do.

As bad as the situation was though, if neither one gave you a clean shot, than you did the right thing. IF they had, I would hope you would have done the right thing. Since they didn' t, you can' t beat yourself up for what other people do. There was no sense in injuring the animal more unless you KNEW it would put them down.

Hopefully the rest of your season turns out better!!! Good luck!

Reacher

That is really sad. I recently got my first kill ever. It was with a rifle and I think she ran about 100 yards. One of the guys on our lease has his 16 yr old hunting with him and he seems like a good kid. He got a doe last sunday and as we were helping him out of the field with her, I noticd that she was swollen up enough that she might have been nursing. I asked if she had a kid with her and he never answered me. That night, I hunted in his stand since he and his father had gone home. Sure enough, there was a very small kid that showed up at my feeder and then bedded down just 10 feet from it. When more deer showed up , it ran up to every adult it saw and smelled them to see if they were mommy. Then it bedded down right in the middle of the field and just waited for mommy. It was eating corn from the feeder and grazing in the field so it may be able to make it on it' s own and since deer are social animals, it may find a surrogate family.

It just really burns me up that he took a doe that clearly must have had a kid with it. When I took my doe, I had to settle for a smaller one because out of the 15 or so deer I had a shot at, she was the biggest one that did not have a kid with her. I may want to harvest deer and really enjoy the thrill of the kill, but I am not out there indiscrimanently killing. I wish all " hunters" were as mindful of the bigger picture.

BOWHUNTERCOP

I HUNT WITH BOW, MUZZLELOADER, RIFLE, AND SHOTGUN. A FEW YEARS AGO DURING THE NEW JERSEY SHOTGUN SEASON (bucks only), I SEE 15 DEER COMING TO ME ALL DOES, THE LAST ONE HAD ITS RIGHT HIND LEG HANG FROM WHAT I THINK WAS SKIN/FUR. I WAS GOIN TO TAKE HER, BUT SHE WAS THE ONLY ONE THAT NEVER CAME OUT OF THIS THICK BRIARS. 1/2 HR. GOES BY, SOME HUNTERS ARE WALKING & TALKING HOW THEY SHOT A DOE AND THEY HAVE MEAT, ALSO THEY HAVE NO IDEA I' M 25 FEET ABOVE THEM, THEY WALK OFF FIRE A FEW ROUNDS, COME BACK DRAGGING THE DOE. I QUIETLY CLIMB DOWN, WALK UP TO THEM IDENTIFY MYSELF, TAKE THERE FIREARMS, CALL THE LOCAL GAME WARDENS, THEY GOT FIND EACH $1000, AND LOST THE RIGHT TO HUNT IN NEW JERSEY FOR 5 YEARS. THEY SHOT THAT POOR DOE ON PURPOSE, TO ME THEY ARE A**HOLES!!!! THE DOE WENT TO A FAMILY WHO NEEDED THE MEAT