As has been stated, A called B to help track it. That makes it A's deer. That being said, if I were A I'd be offering up some meat.

3 times I have been involved in this.

1st... I shot a buck running acroos a field, 2 good hits. he was staggering when a buddy opened up on him and dropped him with a spine shot. He claimed it, I was pissed and later got the deer.

2nd... I made a bad shot on a deer, my group split up to find him. One guy 30 yrds from me found about dead in a bed and finished him for me. we split the deer, I tagged it.

3rd... on a mule deer hunt in Co. a guy I am hunting with shoots at a small buck. Said he didn't hit it. At last light I am walking toward him and the buck jumped up and was running away, I put him down and he takes the deer. I have eaten 4 muledeer taggs, and probably could have argued that this was mine but to keep the peace I let him tag it.

My rule when you hunt with me is, if you have the first leathal hit its your deer. example, if you gut shoot, leg shot, neck shot and it runs past me, sorry its mine. If we find it in a bed dying it's yours. heart, lung, liver it's yours no matter what. Now, every situation is different, but I try and explain my rules before every hunt so feelings are not hurt later.

Hunter A, B was just helping

A all the way. My mom had a similar situation, almost identical in hit and her brother hit it on the run through the boiler room as they were trying to find it. Of course, all hunters in the party defaulted this to my mom's deer, thus hunter A.

IMO this is party hunting (multiple hunters filling one tag), which is illegal in Indiana. The guy that kills the deer should be the one required to tag it regardless of wether he was there just to help out.

Now let's throw this into the equation. Hunter B is helping Hunter A in this situation and lives in a One Buck Only State like Indiana. The deer in question is a little 6 pt. I am guessing that hunter B will say it is Hunter A's deer. But if the deer is a 170 class Booner, I'll bet that Hunter B sees things differently and tags it himself.

Poachers are the only one that don't go by the law. Hunter B is a poacher if he does not tag it.

First Blood has always been the rule out here....so I vote "A"

Best of Luck,
Jeff

If hunter B wasn't a friend, the laws/regs around here say first lethal shot is the owner of the deer.

But if I grabbed a friend or he grabbed me and I finished it off for him, i would assume it was his, and vice versa, with friends the first wound would be my call, less a week went by and saw it and made a lethal shot a week or later...

If you request help, the other person should understand that they are helping someone claim their deer. But then it does become a team effort and B should get at least a share of the meat for helping.

That is different from sitting in your stand and shooting a deer and then 10 minutes later somebody comes running up saying it is their deer because they shot it first. If you hit a deer poorly enough to where it can run long distances and stay on its feet, then it should go to whoever actually kills it, no matter how much lead you initially got into it.

Here, lets fix it:

1. There are a lot of hunters here that need to learn how to shoot.

2. There are a lot of hunters here that can skull F a topic to death.



I'm glad I don't have to hunt with jackashes like this.....