I had the best/worst opening day of hunting today. I got to my stand well before dawn and was set and ready. I seen nothing but racoons till about 8:00. Then i heard a loud crunch across the creek to the south and immediately after i heard a deer crashing through the woods. Well he barreled across the creek and stopped at 25 yards. I drew back and let the arrow fly. It sunk into his body about an inch to and inch and a half behind his shoulder but it hit kinda low. And did i mention he was a nice sized 8 point. Well i let him lay for a good 45 minutes and then got down to check my arrow which was covered in blood. Well there was blood everywhere so i felt good about the hit so i headed to the truck for a bit and theni pursued. Well there was good sign but he was heading in a direction i didn't want him to go, towards the property of a man who lets nobody on his property. Well you can guess what happened, thats right, he crossed onto this mans property and he would not let us pursue. I begged for him to let me just look as i knew the deer wasn't going much farther. He said no and told me to leave. Well i called conservation and they said that if i could find blood i could trail the deer where ever. But whenthe deerwent onto this mans property he crossed a creek and when i checked where he crossed i found no blood on the other side. Low and behold later in the day i seen him at the gas station talking about the big 8 point he stalked and shot on his property. I asked if he had pictures or anything and he said no that it was already in the freezer. I am so mad right now. He is the most ignorant person i have ever met.Why must people be such a$#holes. I can't believe a fellow hunter would do that to someone else who enjoys the sport just as much as they do. I am thouroughly disgusted.

Oh Bill, I feel terrible for you.

I don't even want to imagine what that is like.
Whata nightmare.

Although, I must say, nice stand location, shot placement, and you get credit my book for following up as much as the law allowed.

go shoot a bigger one.

Jeeze Bill, I'm real sorry to hear all that. I read this a while ago and I still can't come up with something to say here that wouldn't get me in trouble. Let's just say, if it were me, I'd have gotten that deer. And he wouldn't have known anything about it. And if he did, I'd be asking forgiveness because I still wouldn't be asking permission. Any cop, judge or DNR officer would understand totally, especially ifI had a blood-trail leading back nearmy stand. And if not, well I'd still rather pay the fines and have that deer for the rest of my life instead of the memory you have of it now.

I hope it doesn't ruin the rest of your season.

Wow, that sucks. I'm not sure what else to say 'cept, try to forget about it and move on to the next deer. I hope you have much better luck the rest of the season.

That's kind of what I was getting at. Some people, when they take Viagra, get taller. He's one of them. Tough to get over. Best thing would be to shoot a bigger one if you can.

What does the law say about this?

I had a friend with a similar experience; he was hunting property adjacent to a forest preserve and was not allowed by the Forest Preserve police to pursue a deer he wounded and ran into the preserves. The police threatened to throw him in jail if he pursued the deer. I have no validation but that is what he told me.

Unfortunately the law is on the property owner's side; not the hunter...If a deer crosses into private property before expiring the landowner must give permission (if he knows that you are going "sneaking" over to get your deer).

I know, the law bites; but what can you do? Not even a CPO can give you permission over a landowner for the purposes of tracking a deer.

As sickening as it may be, Bill did it by the book.

This is from page 8 of the 2008 Hunting and Trapping Regs...

What blows my mindis thatWilliam overhead this guy bragging about how 'he' killed the deer.

Way to take the high road William, most of us would have reacted
differently.

Thanks for the research, Chris.