Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire I ended my deer season on opening day due to another hunter.

I saw a set of antlers sticking out of the brush today, I put my cross hairs on them and waited for him to get up. When he finally stood up I put one behind his shoulder, he jumped the fence he was laying next to and fell over. When I approached I noticed that some other sloppy hunter had already shot off his left hind leg, and blew off half his right hind quarter. I thought to myself that he was an amazing animal being able to jump a fence with his previous injuries and my 130 grain interbond through his lungs. Before I finished the job the other guy started his injuries were not immediately life threatening, he could have suffered for days. I am thankful that things turned out the way they they did, I put my tag on him and took him home.

You did the right thing, good job

If the meats bad call F&G, good chance they will give you another tag.

Today was opening day the wounds were pretty fresh

Good work

I collected a 3 legged doe late last year out of the kitchen window. The way she was hobbling about and with our coyote population it was better she die a quick death.

Pics????

A friend had that happen. Bow hunting, saw a small racked young buck obviously suffering and sickly acting with an arrow already through it's neck. Out of mercy he killed it and tagged it with his only buck tag even though it wasn't near the age and quality of deer he hunts. The old wound was festered badly too. Contacted local game warden, was issued another buck tag and thanked for being an ethical hunter.

Mistakes happen in the field and not all hunters are that good of a shot. Chit happens if you hunt long enough

Good show!

Been there, done that. It's not a hard decision to do the right thing.

Long time ago, I was sitting on a hillside and a gutshot doe came struggling by. I shot her with a DRT. I didn't know exactly what to do because I didn't have a doe tag. While I was thinking about it, a voice from behind me ask if I was going to claim my deer. Turned around and it was the game warden. I explained what had happened and that I didn't have a tag. He said that's Ok, he had spotted her earlier and had been following her to get her. He ask me to help him clean her and get her to the road. I did and he thanked me for the help.

I've done that a couple of times, once with a young four-pointer someone had gutshot, and once with another young deer some dumbazz had shot the lower jaw off.

Didn't hurt my feelings a bit, I fed the first one to the hogs and the second to the dogs.

I know I did the right thing by both deer. I don't like leaving anything to suffer.

Good choice the right thing to do.

Not an out of his misery story - but one of the nicest bull elk I ever shot was bedded and I shot him in place with follow-up shots to anchor him since he was close to a trail hunters used to climb up to the hunting area. When I got to him and tried to maneuver him he was missing his lower left leg below the knee. The knee was completely haired over and the stump was twice the size of the other knee. Animals heal sometimes from some injuries that you would expect to be fatal.

Always best to take them out when injured,I hate the thought of coyotes getting a free meal,

I shot a bedded buck one time that appeared to had been hit in the rear end by an auto as best as I could tell. I didn't realize it until I skinned it out. If it had not been hit would I had still had the opportunity at the shot?... who knows... stuff happens

A mechanic i work with shot a previously shot (as in it was mostly healed up on the outside) It was full of infection on the inside.

I've killed a couple with obvious wounds, one with an arrow sticking out of his backstrap that wouldn't let him lower his head enough to eat off the ground.

I didn't even walk up to the carcasses.

i killed a boar that had been shot in the head before, couldn't tell till the skull was bare and you could see the bullet hole in the skull that was still healing.

I took a nice mule deer buck several years ago about a week into the season that had been shot in the hip and the ankle on the same back leg. It was on a ranch with limited permission and not too far off the highway. I expect someone took some shots from the road but when the buck ran off never bothered to check on him for fear of a trespass charge.

I had permission on the ranch and jumped the buck just a half mile off the road. After seeing what had happened I checked out the bed. It looked like he'd laid there quite a while.

When I dressed him the meat on the injured hind quarter was noticeably warmer to the touch. The meat on the rest of the animal was edible but not the quality of every other mule deer we'd killed on that ranch.

montanabadger,
I guess I'm not entirely clear on things. Your title says you ended your season due to another hunter, but it looks like from your post that you didn't know the deer had already been shot. Who is the other guy who said the wounds weren't immediately life threatening? A little clarification would help. Glad you put the buck down in any regard.

The other, stupid ass hunter aimed for the lungs but shot him in the hind leg. Pathetic.
There are some really sorry stupid hunters out there, and lots of deer suffer and suffer because of their mistakes.

Glad you were able to put this poor guy out of his misery.

I've put down at least four (that I can recall right off) that were badly shot by others. I leave them.

Sloppy writing of the post, and some misreading on your part. I meant to say I finished the fob the other guy started. If there deer hadn't been wounded like he was I doubt he would have laid there like he did as he saw me long before I saw him. The wounds didn't damage any internals and he wasn't bleeding alot so he could have hung in there for a long time.

Ah, I get it now.
You did a good thing.

Ive killed several wounded deer. One had obviously tangled with a truck and was missing a large piece of hide on his rump, it had to be the ugliest deer in the woods.
Another deer (a doe) i hit badly due to some wierd flying ninja barrel roll after the bow string was released. 5 hours of tracking, over 5 miles of country, until a landowner refused me access to finish it off.
To this day i am reminded of that shot, by my email address, and i switched from recurve to crossbow for the added follow through. The arrow did not punch cleanly through the skull, and would not have been fatal for some time, likely due to infection. Fate, not lack of skill guided that arrow.

I wonder how many of these wounded deer stories are related to the yahoo's that don't even bother to sight their rifle in before hunting season. Many just grab a handful of random bullets in drawer, head out and hope for the best. Then they wonder why their deer ran off, after the shot with little or no blood trail. Only mentioning this because "I know a few guys" that operate like that. I always dread hunting with the guys that don't make the necessary preparations to make clean accurate shots.

Good job.

Many "hunters" aren't "shooters". They don't realize how far off "random bullets from a drawer" hit from the point of aim. They also have no idea of range estimation and wind drift. Many also think they can shoot a lot better than they really can.

They don't take the time to learn the craft.

Good on the OP for ending the suffering.

One year I sat on the deck in Northern Michigan drinking a beer after I just hung up a nice 8 pt. There is only one other house in the area. It is about 85-yards away. Back of field edge behind said house is just over 625 yds. From the deck.

I could see a guy in a giant orange pumpkin suit sitting in the tree line roughly 50 yds from back field edge. Neighbor's son. I knew the deer would be coming out at any minute. They come out, guy fires his shotgun not once, but 4 times. Deer still standing there 50 yds. away looking at him. On the fifth shot he drops it. He gets up walks toward deer, gets maybe 10 yds. from it, and deer gets up and runs into woods. They looked a long time and never found it. I am sure it lived out it's last days as a tripod.

Why anyone would choose a shotgun where rifles are legal, I have no idea. But at least know how to shoot the damm thing. It was sickening to watch.

Not long before this happened, I took a deer in same location of back field edge. 1 Shot, DRT. But I was shooting from the deck......

I wish I knew that two seasons back because the whitetail my son shot had a previous injury and it was fugking horrific.




Travis

Was thinking same thing. If one was so inclined to get the DNR involved, they just may have taken care of you. Have seen similar things happen......

The wounds were fresh, he's got a nice rack, I got lots of meat off him, and he's no longer suffering, I'm happy, I'll call it call it my feel good trophy.