I got a call Thanksgiving morning from a relative telling me that a buck had been "acting funny" on their property since daybreak. I got over there at about 10:30 and found the buck pretty easily. He was very much alive (3 hours after the landowner first saw him) but clearly not okay. He picked his head up when I got within 100 yards, but stayed bedded. Since he was definitely sick or badly hurt, I shot him in the boiler room. He bolted to his feet but died a few steps away.
When I went to dress him out, I found my bullet hole right behind his shoulder. Then I found a second bullet hole--one I did not make--right through his paunch. When I dressed him out, I was greeted by the aroma of stomach contents spilling out through that second bullet hole.
I finished dressing him out, put a transport tag on him, then dragged him up to the landowners barn and hosed out the cavity as well as I could. Now, no one but me has permission to hunt within a quarter mile of where I found this deer. So after I hung the buck (in the barn), I told the landowner that another hunter might come looking for that deer and if that happened to call me. If I had received that call, my intention was to give the deer back to the hunter that drew first blood (assuming that someone who would trail a badly shot deer that far is probably a decent sportsman, despite the bad shot).
The first guy never showed up, so I checked the deer in the next day and took it to the processor. It was a smaller buck than I was hunting for, though, so I'm a little irritated about using my tag on it even though I think it was ethically the right thing to do to put him out of his misery, and legally the right thing to do to tag him once I had.
Just curious how others might have handled that.
When I went to dress him out, I found my bullet hole right behind his shoulder. Then I found a second bullet hole--one I did not make--right through his paunch. When I dressed him out, I was greeted by the aroma of stomach contents spilling out through that second bullet hole.
I finished dressing him out, put a transport tag on him, then dragged him up to the landowners barn and hosed out the cavity as well as I could. Now, no one but me has permission to hunt within a quarter mile of where I found this deer. So after I hung the buck (in the barn), I told the landowner that another hunter might come looking for that deer and if that happened to call me. If I had received that call, my intention was to give the deer back to the hunter that drew first blood (assuming that someone who would trail a badly shot deer that far is probably a decent sportsman, despite the bad shot).
The first guy never showed up, so I checked the deer in the next day and took it to the processor. It was a smaller buck than I was hunting for, though, so I'm a little irritated about using my tag on it even though I think it was ethically the right thing to do to put him out of his misery, and legally the right thing to do to tag him once I had.
Just curious how others might have handled that.