Ngtshade

SO was up hunting on my wifes family' s farm on sat (gun opener) talk with her cousin and find out where all his buddies were gonna be on stand the night before. SO morning comes and i slip out into the woods i pick a remote spot far away from where they were all supposed to be setup ( they all had rifles and i wanted distance) so just as the first pale show of light starts i find this (what i think) perfect spot. Its at the corner of some woods bordering a field on two sides theres the start to a small ravine in sight about 30 yards in from the fields. So I' m thinking perfect little funnel for deer to move through, so i setup my stand then go lay out some scent and as it lightens up i notice good tracks and deer sign, now i' m feeling more confident about my spot selection, its around 40 degrees so they should be moving with rut in full swing...... I climb up and get settled in ...well an hour passes and i' m hearing shots ringing out from the other side of the farm. I' m thinking cool the other guys are having some luck when all of a sudden BANG!!.......BANG!!! 2 shots seemingly right behind me and i' m sucking back on my tree like crazy trying to be one with the tree for fear of being shot! now i' m wondering who the heck is on our land without permission shooting up the place? well it' s all quiet now and i don' t hear anything else but am thinking maybe this guys shots will move some my way.Then 20 minutes later i hear it! the sound of someone or something moving through the woods slow behind me... so i slowly turn my head and glance into the woods and there he is!! a nice buck! now i start shaking cause i' m like my first deer! and he' s got a rack! i count 5 points on the side closest to me ....slowly i ease to a stand and he' s off about 15 yards moving slow and steady parallel to my stand which will put him in an easy position for me to broadside him ...literally... he moves 10 more feet then starts to turn away ...NO!.... i grunt at him and he turns back a little and stops! just slightly quartering away... i got a few branches between me and him but i am confident i can slip an arrow through a small lane i have without hitting any. i draw back , he steps forward again now he' s totally clear ,good lane to him i errpp and he stops and turns his head towards me and i see this little tuff of hair about 8inches behind his shoulder.....release ......and thunk put the arrow into him! good hit little further back than i wanted it but still into his lungs. so heres the wierd part... instead of jumping and sprinting away he kinda hops forward then tears off away along the ravine and into the thick stuff ...i hear him crash a few times then one last crash.. but he out of sight now so i' m not sure if hes down or just busted through the thicket. I' m shaking like a leaf at this point so excited that i got my first one and hes a wallhanger! ....light up a smoke and relax while i give him time then slowly get organized and after 30 minutes start down the tree..... leave my stand on the tree and head quietly to the hit sight its a pass through! little blood at the spot with some hair, i mark it with my arrow then start to track no blood for 20 yards now i' m gettin concerned and doubting my hit when whammo! blood!! lots of it so i track again and there he is just into the thicket piled up not more than 10 yards from the first blood, i approach and tap him no movement he' s dead!!! I am sooo sooo pumped at this point i check him out he' s nice 9 points about 200 lbs i' d guess and a good entry and exit. went in at the back of the ribs midpoint on his body and came out behind his opposite leg in the light part . so i mark him with my blaze vest and head out to recruit a fourwheeler to drag him out ... when i meet up with the guy who made those two shots right by me ! turns out one of my cousins buddies couldn' t find his stand in the dark so he came to here instead and he can' t find his deer that he had shot at.....which he describes as a little 6 point, so i drop my stand and offer to go help track, we find his blood trail and follow it when it just stops so we slowly start to circle search trying to pick up blood again well we never do and after 20 minutes he' s like " well that one got away" and i' m like noway we' ll keep looking till we find him.... so i' m starting to get this wierd feeling about it and the way his deer was heading when he lost blood.... so i take him to my deer and we check him good for a bullet hole we can' t see any other holes in him or blood sign anywhere else on him except my two holes so he' s like " no thats not him but heck of a nice deer you got!" and puts his foot on him.............. and blood starts flowing out of another hole on his shoulder...his bullet hole!!!! so my first deer turns out to be the one he shot that i just finished off for him! what a kick in da arse! but atleast we recovered his deer.
sorry for such a long long post!

bogobble

Congrats on your first buck!

DoubleLung55

I dunno about the laws in your state, but in PA that is ur deer. You made the kill shot, u put the animal down , nice story, and congrats on a good shot , but that actually is ur deer, did u get it or did he take it?

Scar955

Wow!!! What a story!!! I' m sorry to hear how your first turned out.

So, when everyone says your first is always your hardest, does this count as your first?

JeramyK

Congrats!

Ngtshade

well i guess if he wasn' t a 9 point he' d be mine but when we found the bullet hole the other guy started saying how he doesn' t have any on his wall that big,and what are we gonna do about this..... well it hurt but ethically speaking he did shoot it first and it was a killing hit but it would of probably been unrecovered with the way he stopped bleeding so i told him it was his and i just finished it off for him ....so i' lkl be back out again looking for my first again! <sigh>

JZarr

As far as I' m concerned, that' s your deer.

But if you' re okay with the decision to let him have it than that is up to you.

Good luck on getting your " first" - again.

houdini

I don' t know if I' d have been that generous. But congrats anyway.

davidmil

Well the code of ethics says the FIRST vital wound gets the deer. True the guy wouldn' t have gotten him on his own. He was ready to give up... remember? I really question HOW VITAL his shot was. You said there was 20 minutes between his shots and when the deer came walking and feeding your way. Sounds like he hit shoulder muscle and didn' t even get into the rib cage. A close examination of the interior of the chest wall will tell you the story. IT' s up to you guys to work it out of course. NO deer is worth a family feud over.

Ngtshade

Well the guy was shooting a 30-06 and hit the deer on the left shoulder, small wound that stopped bleeding after traveling 15 yards (thats how long the bloodtrail was) i really wanted that deer be it 9 points or a spike (heck even a doe) he was my first but its my wife' s family' s land and i' m a guest there. I do know that if i had a marginal hit on a deer and the shoe was on the other foot I would think the deer was mine and be thankful someone had put him down quick and ended his suffering, so I am sleeping well at night knowing i did the right thing IMO. I ended a deers suffering quick and made an unrecovered deer a trophy for someone! there are bigger boys out there and the local legend is a monster 14 this year who knows karma might treat me right and put that beast under my stand next time! now wouldn' t that be a N I C E ! ! ! first deer!!!
Thanks for letting me share this with you all.