CovertOps

I was out hunting Michigans opening day. I had a 4 point in my sights 5 minutes after the official time to start hunting. I took my shot & thought I had a good hit at 40 yds away. (lower MI shotgun only). The buck ducked into the brush. I waited an hour & the sky looked like rain was going to push in so I went to the area where I took the shot & found blood spray. I decided then that the rain hadnt started yet & waited another hour. I then started to track the blood trail. I found a spot in the underbrush that looked like splatter instead of drip. That made me think it was a lung shot. Well after an hour of tracking accross two property lines (that I had permission to go across). I still had not even found a spot where the deer had laid down. Just a steady stream of blood. Realizing that my shot must not have been a great placement I decided I would track this deer till the blood ran out or I found the deer ( the forcast had said rain by noon & I didnt want to lose my trail. The amount of blood was overwhelming but still not a single spot where the deer had laid down. My neighbor saw me tracking & came out to help. When I came to a creek to cross he let me go on my way. With my head to the ground & thick underbrush to go through it wasnt long before I wasnt sure exactly which direction was which. The wind had died down in the thick brush so I had no clue. I just kept tracking & finally found a spot where the deer had laid down but then I lost all blood traces. While doing a sweep in the direction I thought the deer was going someone started yelling at me from over a 100 yds away. The guy screamed get out of here. (I thought I was still on my neighbors land) obiously not. I appologized & asked whos land I was on. He said it was none of my business get the he!! out of here. I tried explaining the situation to him but He said he didnt care get out of here. (all at a scream because we were more than a hundred yards apart). I left abandoning my blood trail & headed away from the guy in the direction I thought the creek was.
I stopped at my neighbors house & explained to him & he told me who he thought I ran into. I then went to that guys house & left a card in his door asking him to call me. Later that day he called. I appologized for trespassing & explained to him my head was down & I didnt realize that I got off track. He said he didnt care what I was doing just stay off his land. I told him who I was & that his family including him have been hunting coon accross the back of my familys farm for 40 years & I didnt mean to cross him. He didnt care & he proceded to tell me if I was at his house right now he would kick my butt. So now I have no Deer I feel horrible for upsetting a neighbor & fellow hunter. I feel even worse that a good deer is now probably rotting out in the woods going to waste.
Any comments. Is this a normal way to act. What would you do in my situation & what would you do in his situation.
Thanks

wis_bow_huntr

How far did you track this deer total before you got yelled at? To me it doesnt sound as if you made a killing shot. It shouldnt have went that far on a killing shot. Sounds like you mave hit a leg. Deer will bleed profusley when hit in the leg, I hit one with my bow a few years ago that I tracked for 2 days and had a hell of a blodd trail. Come to find out I jumped the doe and saw that I hit it in the leg. Opening day of gun season that year she was dead, by my cousins bullet.

isatarak

Maybe there was something over there he didn't want you to see?

Lanse couche couche

He's an clown.

rich e

It's always best to give it a good try, which it sounds like you did, but don't beat yourself up for not finding it, it won't go to waste, you'd be surprised how fast the critters find it, and eat it all up.

OntElk

That was my thought. Good on ya for following up. Clearly showed you aren't a bad guy at all. Sucks about the deer but it ain't worth the people hassles you can get into. Forget about it and move on. If you KNEW where the deer was and could recover it to save meat then getting a game warden to help recover might be an option but sounds like that would have only opened up a whole can of conflict anyway. Perhaps he already had your deer hanging?

After an hour wait and the blood you decribed I can't believe you didn't find it however?

I sure wouldn't let him coon hunt on my land if I was you family.

kevin1

It's not as though you deliberately trespassed , and you made a more than commendable effort to make up for it . That guy isn't a neighbor , he's just anbutthead . Tell the jerk that he's no longer welcome to hunt your land and call the game warden on him if he doesn't listen .

NBDeerHunter

first of all it really seems like you made a decent effort to explain to him what happened and that you didn't mean to be on his property. He was just beeing a dummie.
After following up with him and he was still like that I would definetly not allow him or his family on your property and I would more than likely at that point had enough of his loud mouth and gone over to take him up on thebutt kicking.....remember it is better to give than receive and he would be recieving if he didnt shut his pie hole....

people like that piss me off and I know I should just keep quit and let them be but somebody has to put them in their place or they will continue

Red Lion

The guy had reason to be upset, but he must just be a dink as well. You did right by apologizing on at least two occassions and he sounds like he is just a dink.

kenman

That would rile me up to no end. If he threatened to kick my butt, I'd be on his doorstep having a man to man with him in about 5 minutes.

Can't you call a CO and have him talk to that guy?