DocD

I concur, both parties acted correctly, your finding after the fact are just that, after the fact, your thoughts and actions were "Pure"
& that is all that really matters. Doc

ps
that is a nice deer

DeerandbearhoG

Thanks guys I apprieciate the kind words. I guess what made me feel bad was I probably woulda passed on this buck since Ive taken bigger bucks and it was an hour into the gun season. I also just took a pretty nice 8pt with the bow a couple weeks earlier , The way the guy was acting he seemed to really want that buck, but when we couldnt find the other bullet hole he really couldnt claim it ,but yeah some guys would still try, I wish we had thought to walk up the hill to look for blood, if we found it then I woulda gave it to him for sure.

Kinda funny how his bullet angled down the way it did but there was really no other explanation. Also amazing how much damage his bullet did to the spine and ribs without really slowing the deer down much. Ive always been amazed at how much trauma a whitetail can absorb and still run away.

Stonewall, yeah its a rem 700mtlss with a leupold vx3. Great rifle , very acurate, light and easy to carry. I wanted to take a deer with my 357mag this year. I had it on my lap in case a deer came with 20yds. This one came alot closer but in all the commotion I forgot it was there! lol.

Happy Thanksgiving all

Tundra10

Life.

I'd have dropped it and put it in the freezer. Would not have put any thing on the wall though.

HaPPY EATING!

petasux

If you hadnt dropped it theres no saying it even would have been recovered.I shot a big doe during a deer drive several years back that was hit high up like that, bullet had clipped her spine but she was still going.She ran towards me and I could see she had a wound, figured one of our guys had shot her so I put her down.Turned out the wound was old, she had been shot days earlier, probably during shotgun season {this was late muzzleloader season}.Had to throw out one of the backstraps because it was infected and festering there were bone chips from the vertabres in the meat, never woulda figured a deer could run with a wound like that much less stay on her feet days after but theyre pretty remarkable sometimes

SecondChance

You done great!! You both looked at the deer at the same time and both agreed that he, at that time for appearances sake, had not hit the deer and you took the fatal shot. Both left on agreeable terms and with a handshake to boot!!!!! Doesn't get any better.
I would have to take it a step above that you were considering even yet willing to give the deer back and sacrafice your tag to do so is comendable.
Question though, how did you know it was his truck that you came across later for you said he must have came in behind you without you knowing, did you know him before this event?

isatarak

He was probably relieved he didn't have to make the drag.

DeerandbearhoG

No I asked if he was in the truck that I parked next to, he said no he was driving a grey truck down the road.

Stonewall308

I'm taking mine out on Thursday weather permitting.

NJheadhunter71

Don't sweat it. What you did was what you should have done. I had the same thing happen to me back in 02. I had a father and his two sons hunting in a triangle 100yrds all around me. We talked going in at 5am and we all explained where we were going to be. Well by 7am the kid shot a small buck with buck shot twice breaking what I think was 3 legs! Ever see a deer run on three broken legs? Or for better words run on one good leg? It came 30yrds from me after being shot flopping then driving itself forward with one leg. It stopped and laid down making that bahhhh sound so after about 3 minutes of hearing that I got down and at point blank range put it out of its misery not at all thinking it was anything but. I heard the group trying to track the deer so I approached them and showed them were it was. The father flipped it over looking for any sign of a mortal pellet wound then looked at me and said congratulations and told his boy it was rightfully my deer. I tried to give it to the boy but I guess his dad was trying to teach him a lesson.