Can you belive this bull$*@&?!?!?!!?!?!?!?
 

A guy that my family knows was hunting some public land. I heard a shot from private land and looked to see a nice 8 point running his way. He shot and dropped it. When he went over to the deer he noticed that they did hit the deer but really high in the back end and it wasnt going to die. He proceeded to gut and tag the deer, then put the deer on his deer carrier and started taking it out of the woods. Then 4 guys who has originally shot the deer walked up, ripped the tag off the deer and stole the deer. I only know what happened up to this point. The game warden was contacted. What would you do in this situation?

It's truly amazing what you will experience while deer hunting now days

Sounds like those guys weren't leaving without that deer. With attitudes like that and firearms involved, I'd have let them take it and try and get their backtag numbers if possible. No deer is worth risking your life. Might've been a good idea to snap some photos right away after tagging to help identify it later.

This same thing happened to my neighbor but the two parties worked it out and split the meat. The final kill should be the person who gets to tag it. If the other group wanted it that bad they should have shot it better.

i usually carry more than 4 bullets in my gun, wouldnt have been a problem. coulda prolly got 2 guys with one bullet if ya line em up right, but it aint worth the time you will spend in jail. its just a deer. hard to live through a gun shot with out medical attention, so the deer woulda died eventually. let it go, find another.

I would have just let it go. Now if the deer had ran onto his private property that would have been handled much different.

Photos good. Of deer and a-holes. Cut a little wedge out of tongue to i.d.. have heard of a dime being put in a slit of hide.
Yes it is b.s.. a killing shot is usually obvious and i don,t want someone else's deer, till brain runs out of oxygen they can cover a lot of ground with a heart or lung shot.
In Mi. who ever reduces it to law full possession (basicly by touching it) gets ownership.
We don,t wear backtags anymore,the last year we had to wear them some genus chose brown for color!
Because i don,t chase them anymore with wheel chair all three this year were pinned through shoulders. Cost some meat but anchors deer.

That is pretty sad. Would be hard to prove I think. Next time the fellow needs to bring a camera, make an identifying mark on the deer, and quickly snap a photo. Let them take the deer and quickly call sheriff and warden. I would think this would qualify as armed robbery as well as a game law violation. Guys like these 4 need to have their licenses revoked and guns taken away for good.

Great ideas if you are planning to leave the deer in the woods to retrieve it later.

I like the idea of cutting a chunk out of the tongue or something like that, especially if you think there might be people following it and their hit wasn't a killing shot or if you need to leave the deer to retrieve it later. I'm not sure a warden would be able to do much in a situation like that, I just don't know that they'll get involved or be able to say it's his deer not his deer. I had a slightly similar situation last season, hit a buck and wounded it (non-lethal shot) and pushed it to within 30 yards of my buddy and he dropped it. I followed the blood trail right to him and we looked the deer over, saw my hit wasn't good, and he tagged it.

Sounds extreem but they did draw first blood,it didnt bother the guy that it was already wounded?would the guys that first shot it have trailed it and finished it off?kinda sounds like the second hunter was trying to steal a already wounded deer

Around here if its on public land we go on the who drew first blood as the rule,we find it kind of hard to consider it fair chase if its already got a bullet hole in it

First blood my a$$. first lethal hit all the way, you shoot a deer in the leg and trail it 4 miles till someone else shoots it and you want to claim it, BS........ NO WAY

Like a few guys said, its not worth getting into a huge fight over a deer with 4 guys and guns. but no way would that deer be free to those guys.

Lol sorry didnt mean to affend you,whatever floats your boat thats just how we do it here it seems to work for use,either way its just a deer its not worth fighting over

Define lethal because anything with an an extra hole in it that it wasnt born with will probably die eventualy without some kind of medical attention such as a deer.

Btw id say if someone trails their wounded deer four 4 miles id say they deserve it....

While showing an ex how to track a mortally hit doe about 200 yds years ago two guys picked her up and double teamed her out of the woods. Didn,t bother to gut her for a reason!. Snow was still in woods past thawed field showing her bed and their tracks. and no they didn,t shoot it. I didn,t catch them so they must have really hustled.
Ah well didn,t like it but figured they wanted it awful bad. started looking for other areas to hunt as worse things in the area were reported in the media.

Sorry for rambling but the more i think about it the more i dont blame those guys for getting mad.we are all capable of makeing a bad shot and when u try to do the right thing and track it down you see someone loading it up,yeah id be peed.anouther question is if that deer wasnt wounded would it have ran in the dirrection of the second hunter?theres noway to know.also how desperate are u to steal someones already wounded deer?your not hunting at that point anymore your dispatching a wounded animal is all,just my opinion take no affence

Damn, at first I thought you were referring to your ex! lmao :s2:

B!S! Most every where I know of the kill shot gets the deer!

Lol Dont get your panties in a knot,your entitled to your opinion.

I guess if your desperate to shoot something....

well here in new york it is the law that the "killing" shot gets the deer. So if you double lung a deer and it runs to another guy and he shoots it in the hoof and the deer falls over dead it is his deer. by law and theres nothing you can do about it.

On my land, my rule is 1st killing shot in the vitals. heart, lung, liver you get the idea. Yea a gut shot will kill the deer, but good luck tracking it.

And for the ones sticking up for the 4 guys, are you kidding me. mabey they should learn to shoot better. Killing a deer isnt all that hard you just have to hit them in the right place, not opinion, its a fact

Skinner, you might not understand.

Its not about being desperate to shoot any animal.

How am I to know. That an animal I see and shoot, may have been previously shot by another hunter? I can't, until I kill that animal, and begin dressing it.
Only at that point, can I assess whether or not this animal has already been shot.

Either way, if I make the killing shot. That animal belongs to me. Now, I'm not going to get into a pissing match with another gun totin' know it all.

However, I may ask what claim they have to the carcass. Since I made the killing shot.

I understand where your comeing from we just see it diffrent,the way we look at it is if the deer is already wounded you were not 100 percent responsable for havesting it.you cant prove that it would have resulted in irs death any differnt but it does add a factor.to each their own the way we do it has always worked out.not that it has happened that much but after 30 years of hunting chit does happen and if it never has to you well...you just havent hunted enough.

From a moral standpoint we would just consider it helping a guy out get his deer.but i guess there isnt a whole lot of that anymore.

I've always looked at it as the guy who drops it should be the guy who tags it.

What would I do? In all likelihood, I'd let them have it, sounds like they need it more than I do. It's not worth dying or going to jail over, an angry confrontation with loaded guns probably will never end well.

What would I like to do? Better not say....:fighting0007:

That may be your rule but I have never heard it that way...it is always the fatal shot. Whoever kills the deer gets the deer...an injured deer is not dead...have seen many healed old wounds on deer.

I believe most states follow the fatal shot rule. There's a good reason for it. If you are hunting and you see a wounded animal, and the deer belongs to the person who drew first blood, and you don't see or hear anyone coming, what do you do? 1) not shoot the deer, and leave a wounded animal to suffer and probably die later in the woods; 2) shoot the deer and leave it lay, not knowing whether anyone will ever track it down and claim it; or 3) shoot it and take it home and eat it. The only rule that allows for the last option is the fatal shot rule, and the last option is the one that best insures the deer does not continue to suffer and/or go to waste.

Story in todays paper
 

This was in my local paper this morning, kind of relates to this thread. This incident took place about 20 miles from where I live

While it certainly is a moral issue.
Its also theft, on the part of the first party, to expect a deer that the second party has fatally killed, to then release it.

Now, if you made a good "fatal" shot on that deer. Than you're probably close enough that I can hear it.

Than, there probably isn't an issue here. But, I guess that we'll have to agree to disagree, and also not hunt anywhere near each other.

I'm pretty surprised at all the "first shot gets the deer no matter what" mentalities here. It's hard for me to believe, and you'd be hard pressed to get MY deer if you follow a deer a half-mile or more after shooting it in the leg and expect to take the meat/rack from me after I put a lethal shot on it. If you put the effort into following that deer, that's awesome. Props to you for putting forth every effort to recover wounded game, but something non-lethal like a leg shot doesn't entitle you to that animal. To those saying the hunter who shoots a wounded animal isn't 100% entitled to the animal must not hunt anywhere near any other person or road, otherwise any deer they shoot that might've had their natural routine interrupted by another person or car or whatever also wouldn't be able to take 100% claim over the animal by that same reasoning. If the neighbors do a drive and the deer comes onto your land and you shoot it, does that entitle the neighbors to that deer since they pushed it?

How do you know, for sure, which shot is which? Honestly, unless you see blood pouring out, before you shoot, how do you know which hole is which ?

We've all seen heart/lung shot deer go a good distance, who's to say a second shot hitting high and far back owuldn't knock a deer that is already weak, off it's feet?

I am sure there are borderline situations. A critically wounded deer that runs several hundred yards and is finished off by someone else is such a case. I would hope that decency could kick in. But the OP seemed to be referring to a case where the other 4 forcefully took the deer - and possibly with deadly intimidation. Or worse yet, like when my dad shot a deer that a bunch of rednecks claimed it for their own without even firing a shot. It can get ugly in a hurry when a few guys armed with guns and under the influence perhaps start pretending they are in an old western movie - this type of intimidation via weapon in hand can not be allowed.

I am sure that even with a gun in your hand, it would be pretty intimidating to face 4, likewise armed people in the middle of the woods! Probably better to just let them have it! The deer that is!!! Otherwise, the last shot should get the deer, especially if the deer traveled several hundred yards and did not appear wounded.
I'm sorry, I just have never seen a lethally shot deer travel more than 2-300 yards! Personally, I have never had a deer run much over 100 yards! I have tracked deer for 6 hours and aprox. 2.5 miles with a drop of blood here and there, only to have the blood trail stop with no deer! Probably pushed the deer too hard and too fast! But, it's the proudest tracking job I've ever done without recovering the deer.
Anyway, thats a pretty sad bunch to have to go 4 on 1 to steal a deer!

Its funny I read this story now for I just had this happen here in Il last weekend, our first firearms season here in Il.
I pull up to my hunting spot at second day of season, see a REALLY nice 10pt chasing a doe in a cut bean field at 1330hrs and they bed down there in wide open, seeing me. I change clothes, make a stalk of about 150yds, doe busts me. Both stand up. I am on ground with shooting sticks and ML. Guesstamate distance, set crosshairs accordingly, send it. Buck is facing me, I take a front on chest shot. 50cal, 110grns powder, 250grn Hornady SST bullet.

Buck crunches up, turns and across field to neighbors small timber patch. I leave deer go till 3pm. Hear another gunshot about 20 minutes after I shot my deer on farther up neighboring block. Go to timber edge where deer ran in. No blood. Find blood inside and began tracking. Sparse, but decent. Cover 200yds, blood runs out in open cut bean field, on hands and knees last 75yds, nothing.
Gets dark. Go home. Next day, see truck at neighbors property and as am leaving note to call me, owner of truck walks up. I introduce myself and tell my blight. He tells me he heard me shoot and short time later sees buck running at him with doe but buck was was acting hit pretty good, finishes him off with neck shot and her in the ribs. Both down.
He said he looked for me, but did not see me or my truck. I park at landowners house by barn and walk in to keep from tearing up road.
I ask about how bad the buck was hit and he said that it had missed the heart and lungs, slid along the brisket, hit tip of liver and busted up the guts, lodged in rear left hip. I told him that I was glad he got it for I had no blood to continue to follow it and he was another 500 yds away from where I had lost blood. I shook his hand and left. Content the deer was not coyote food. I still have not filled my tag. I would not have taken the deer if he had offered it. I did not kill it in my book.

rules around my parts are 1st VITAL SHOT...heart, lung, etc. Grazing the deers ass, or a leg won't kill it, so it is the first kill shot.

I remember about 10 years ago...they call it the KOWALSKI BUCK. Shot on 9 acres of land in Manorville NY. 3 friends were hunting this lot the same day.........1st guy shot it in the ass. It ran..2nd guy shot low and knicked it. it ran 3rd guy spined and killed it.
3rd guy wins.
The funny thing is.........the Kowalski buck was like 27 points non typical and scored gross 243 or some crap ! UNREAL BUCK, but you got to hit it in a vital. bottom line.

I am hard pressed to believe I was leaving my deer with 4 chumps.
Not unless they were dragging it out for me !:fighting0007:

Even though the guys were *******s I have to take their side. They drew first blood and had the every right to track the deer. Just because you think it wasnt a mortal wound dosnt mean the deer wouldnt have dropped dead after running another 100 yards. Also did you do perform a balistics report in the field to determine that it wasnt your bullet that hit him in the ass? If they had 4 guys together it seems like they were making an effort to track the deer. Had they just given up on it then Id say they had no right to it.

I'd have to go with first shot to anywhere in the body/legs(not some shot that blew off an antler or it's tail lol). I shot a deer in the a$$/hip w/my bow one time. Took for ever to track it and a fresh thin layer of snow helped out a ton but I finally was able to find it. Still alive but couldn't get up an run any more due to loss of blood/exhaustion. We've all made bad shots before and it might take forever to find the deer, but eventually they will die anyway and the original shooter has an obligation to do everything he/she can to find that deer they shot, regardless of how bad the shot was. Now the way the 4 guys acted is a diff story, had someone came up to me like that then I'd prob told them to F off and kept the deer out of spite but if they were polite, etc then I'd give the deer up due to them getting first shot.

Why would you want a deer someone else ruined a large amount of meat on? I can see shooting it so it doesn't suffer.

The four guys were idiots, for tearing off the guys tag, and taking the deer that's for sure.