For the ones focusing on using a knife after legal hours, the wording here in IL, where the OP is talking about, is legal SHOOTING hours. So if you follow the letter of the law, using a knife after dark to dispatch an injured animal is perfectly legal. I've dispatched a few whitetail and hogs with a knife but it sure isn't the safest thing in the world to do.

I don't think thee is a definitive answer to this question because as is apparent there as so many different laws depending on the state a person is hunting is. I suppose a question such as to op should be predicated on the state the op is from and asking the question about.

I never said things were state wide with my post,(even in you quoting my words) I said MOST states I know of, and each should look into things in there own state
as laws are NOT the same every where
I am talking PA< mostly due to its where I live and have most knowledge, I am NOT a game warden, nor a lawyer
I am giving OPINIONS< as most here are that don't have law degree's in this stuff!

if you do something and don't feel bad it is ethical.....to you, your ethics may be different, or possibly non-existent your ethics are established by how you were taught, question is if its ethical by your standards is it still legal?
RR

a late shot on a wounded deer would equal 2 or more bullet holes, correct, if a late shot is reported and it was a late kill would there be 2 bullet holes?
RR

Sometime what's legal and what's "Right" aren't the same thing. Also, peoples ethics aren't always the same. I know what I'd do.


The best advice probably came from OT. Call your game commission and get permission. They likely won't give it. But they may come out and meet you and help. They might not do that though either depending on what else is going on at the time.


I make every effort to recover my game. If that costs me sometime, so be it.


-Jake

I have another twist on this problem. I'm currently sitting at the house waiting after finding what might be a deer I shot. I thought I hit her good but found a live deer. She was in a big group when I shot her and I think she is dead and it's one of the fawns bedded with her but Im afraid to get any closer to tell for sure what's going on. I can just see eyes and head in thick brush. Like I said I think it's a fawn laying there with her but I sure can't tell for sure. Gonna go back out in about 20 more minutes and take another look. She is only about 50 yards from the shot.

You know what they say about opinions
"opinions are like a_ _ h_ _ _s" we all have one"
To everyone reading this thread, enough is enough, don't you think we're beating a dead deer (couldn't resist).

I've read enough and what I'm about to say is as we say "the pot calling the kettle black"
Practice, Practice, Practice and more ethical shots. Believe you me I've made plenty of poor shots, and continue to practice patience and making better more ethical shots.
Good luck in the future.

Central PA Sportsman, rockport didn't say he made a bad shot. He actually felt he made a good shot. He is only concerned because he trailed it to a live deer. And he is more than likely correct in his assumption that it is a youngling laying beside it's mother. I've seen that happen quite a few times actually rockport. You gave it some time. If it was even a decent shot then either that was her laying and expiring or it was a youngling laying beside her. I'd say with our coyote problem we have around here I'd be getting back to that spot and finding out one way or the other.