NO! It's not a "regional thing"! I was taught that whoever shot it first has rights to the animal. It's just plain hunting ethics!

Jimmy, I agree with you. I won't take someone elses deer if they made a good shot and I happened to finish it. As a matter of fact I did finish a deer once that was hit in the heart, but stopped in front of me....I didn't see it was hit....I dropped it with a neck shot. That young man trailed his deer with his dad and arrived about 5 minutes after I had gotten to the deer. After seeing the blood trail and inspecting the wounds I new that deer was dead before I shot. When they got there I congratulated him on his first buck and went on my way out the ridge. The look of gratitude on his dad's face was evident and all three of us were happy.

All that said, ethics are a big part of hunting and unfortunately in this great state of PA we have many guys that take to the woods with no ethics at all![:@] I had my first buck taken from me by none other than my uncle. It was a spike that I put a shot through the lungs....it stopped 50 yards after the shot then a barage of fire followed. I picked up the blood from were I hit him and followed to my unlce standing over that deer. I was 13 he was 47 and put one round in the deer after it had fallen to 'finish it' as it was still breathing. I was devasted that my own uncle would do that to a kid, but looking back it made me stronger....that and knowing it was only the second deer he had ever shot in 35 years of hunting. I've since killed seven bucks and countless doe in my measly 12 years hunting. The first story only happend about 3 years ago, and I was happier than all get out to see that kid take his first deer with a great shot.


It does no good to the sport to be like that, but many guys don't give a rip about anyone else as long as they got their buck. I've killed some good ones and some scrubs, but I refuse to stoop so low as to take a great memory away form someone only because of my own greed....that little incident of mine may have burned that into me. My uncle has never killed another deer and has given up hunting since.

well, this happend to me this past season, i hit a small buck,lung/heartshot, a nice blood trail a blind person could have followed for about 100 yrds, i heard another shot and i just kept following the trail, i get over top of the hill and theres a guy standing there with his knife out, my stepdad knew the elderly gentleman and the older guy goes is this yours? i was like ya ," i saw it limpin this way so i finished it off and slit is neck for ya. and then he jumped back over the fence and continued hunting on his property and let me have it.

It is very rare for me to see another hunter during season where I hunt. However I think whoever makes the final and killing shot has first pick.

The closest I have ever come to this situation was a couple of years ago, a guy from a neighboring club came to our deer camp, looking for a deer he had shot. As it turned out there were people cutting timber in the area, that picked up the deer! We never heard anything more about it.
As to the post of the guy losing a deer to another hunter 30 yards away, that is hunting awfully close to someone else! That is why I have not hunted public land in many years!
On our property, there is a 300 yard minimum, between stands rule! In the thickets of East Texas this is plenty of distance between hunters. If any deer that I shot ran 300+ yards to another hunter, I don't deserve the deer!

Jag...My buddy was set up (in his self climber) totally unaware there was another hunter within 100yds. Not hard to do in the thick woods in NH. That second shot was fired at the deer within 30 yds of my buddy...I guess neither would have been there had they known another hunter was close by....I also agree with you about not deserving a deer that runs 300 yds. We hunt totally different terraine, New England vs East Texas and I can understand your being at least 300 yds from the next hunter. I see your deer woods each and every year as I travel to visit my wife's family in East Texas. If I'm not mistaken I go thru your town while driving from Houston to Lufkin on Rt 59. My wife went to SFA and I actually got married in Nacogdoches.....Never hunted in your fine state tho!

I've seen it happen that deer were wounded only to be killed by another hunter. Mostly it's common sense that prevails.

If I hunt in an area that has lots of hunters, and I have plenty of time to make a shot, I shoot through, rather than behind the shoulder. They drop faster, often instantly. Doesn't work with archery though.

Jimmy,
you are passing through my hunting territory on US 59, near Woodville! Port Neches is southeast of I-10, I'm about an hour and a half away from my hunting area!
I hope your wife's family can line you up with a good Texas hunt one of these days!
I understand the difference of terrains, but our lack of hunting problems is because I am hunting private land.
Years back, I hunted on some public lands, (there are good public lands too) and had people that were way too close for my comfort! Thats why I only hunt on clubs or leases now!

Jag...I visited the hunting property where my wife's family hunts. All private land and I saw more deer that day than I have ever seen in New England for one day. I was impressed at how clean the setup is. They had a sign in sheet where you would mark the tree stand (tower) that you would be at and the time and date. There was also a sheet that had the harvest info, date/time/sex/# points etc....You could see at a glance what stands were occupied and which ones have been successful over the course of the season...Very cool....I will say this, those East Texas deer don't come as big as the deer we have up north, but those racks are what dreams are made of....who knows Jag, I may take the folks up and spend some time deer hunting down in those Piney Woods of East Texas...

Ever who draws first blood gets the deer. In ND it is illegal to finish off another persons deer. We can only shoot one per tag. I have let many wounded deer walk by followed by a hunter bloodtrailing it. I would never do anything to take away from another persons hunt/experience including gutting, hahaha it's part of the hunt too.