My First Deer

[DigitalFisherman]

Shot my first deer at the end of shooting time on Saturday; it looked like a good shot to the sweet spot and the deer jumped sideways, crashed about thirty yards into the bush and dropped (or so I thought). I climbed down a while later and started working my way towords her but ended up pushing her off her bed and deeper into the bush so I headed back to the house figuring on giving her the night and dragging her out in the morning; it was well after dark. Got out there the next morning, found a lot of blood and some bone (I must have hit a little forward in the shoulder)and followed the trail a couple hundred yards to all that was left of her; a gut pile. For the past two months i have been moving cameras around, scouting, hanging stands, clearing shooting lanes and putting in the time and legwork to put the guys in my party on deer only to have someone happen upon the fruit of my labor and help themselves. I didn't see another deer while hunting and needless to say, that expereance was pretty discouraging.

We ended up going 2 for 4 with one being a decent 8 pointer (my buddies first deer, shot it on his birthday) and had a great time and I will be back out there this weekend; I just needed to vent.

[Rost]

Well, atleast someone took it home! You're lucky you didn't return that morning to find your deer chewed to pieces by the coyotes.

Don't be discouraged, go out and shoot another this weekend.

[lawdog]

That stinks for you, but think of it from the other guy's side. And of course we don't know if this is what happened or not, but maybe just maybe this guy was trying to do the right thing here.

Suppose you happen upon a deer that has been shot and you can't find any indication of anyone tracking it or looking for it. You even try to follow its tracks back a ways to see if anyone is coming and maybe you even yell something like "Hey I got your deer here" to see if anyone responds. Would you a) leave it to rot, or tag it and put the animal to good use. Hopefully no one lets that deer go to waste.

Also the same goes for if you have an obviously wounded deer walk by. Shoot it and wait for someone to come tag and if they don't show up take it, or do you just let it keep walking???

[joe_stack20]

Public or Private land?? If it was public i wouldn't be too shook up about it....if it was my own land and someone did this..I guess i would really be mad as well! Just depends on the circumstance is all!

Just my 2 cents

[Tripleplay]

Lawdog,

Great comments about doing the deer and the other hunter a favor if possible. Last year we knocked down a young buck and after waiting almost an hour we headed out to track. Sure enough it crossed and laid down in sight of another hunter's stand---he said it wasn't as big as he wanted to shoot and until it stood up again he wasn't entirely sure that it really was wounded (although there were shots less than a minute before it reached him).

It took two of us 90 minutes of tracking until we finally pushed that deer into another hunter who finished it off. We were lucky enough that at least somebody finally got a shot at it.

[Kodiak]

how long did you wait...you gotta wait...

[Borch]

Sometimes it's tough to tell that a deer is wounded. I had a little fork come past me and bed down 50 yards from me. The deer was breathing hard and looked a bit distressed. No signs of injury otherwise. I that that he just got his butt kicked by a bigger buck which I was willing to wait for. About 15 minutes later I so orange down the ridge and talked to my father in law who asked if I'd seen a wounded fork they were tracking. I let him know I had and that it was still there. I then fisnished the deer off. The buck was hit low in the brisket and didn't limp or have any noticeable blood on it's hide.

Then two years ago my daughter shot a wounded doe on opening morning. The deer had a leg wound and was limping badly. The party who shot it did eventually show up tracking the deer in the snow. But not until Sunday afternoon. He must of not followed up his shot and then saw blood later.

It all worked out in the end though.

[DigitalFisherman]

Our private land (20a) is bordered on the south by county land (300a), mostly thick woods;the county land has no public access. I shot the deer on public land near our southern property line and tracked it NE across our land and onto the neighbors land. When the blood trail headed in the direction of the neighbors land I called them to ask if I could continue onto their land, of course they said yes. It looked like the deer paused on one of their trails, leaving a big pool of blood then went about 20 yards into the woods and fell. My guess is that one of the guys hunting with the neighbors saw the blood while heading out to sit on Sunday and that was that. I could have raised a stink but it's my father in laws place and a deer isn't worth creating any bad blood with the neighbors. For me it's a matter of principle; had I found a deer I would have asked the partys hunting to the east and to the west of us if they lost track of a wounded deer. I'm new to this game but it just seems like the ethical thing to do. My wife sugested that "perhaps they needed the meat"... that could be and if that were the case I would have gladly given them the deer; like I said, it's simply a matter of principle.

Live and learn; if I had it to do over I would go back out on Saturday night with a few more sets of eyes and continue tracking.

[96trigger]

Be glad someone got it. Its way worse to wound a deer and then lose it. You still have your tag, now go back out and try again .

[OrionsX0]

I could be alot worse. A friend of my brother had a pretty scary situation when a guy threatened to kill them if they did not give him a Big Buck that he had shot at but missed. They gave him the deer in there words there is no Buck no matter how big that is worth getting shot over. They are talking to the local CO to see what he can do about it. there were a few witnesses that saw everything and heard the threat

I will post what happens as I find out

[Craig_S]

Just a thought, but could it be the deer made it to the trail and one of your neighbors shot it? If there was a significant blood/hair loss there, that may explain it. In my neck of the woods, he who stops it, gets it. Sheer speculation, but that may make it a bit easier to take?

Craig