Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Who gets the deer? Discussion Topic.

The reason for the rule, is so Dad does not go out and kill six deer or six elk and then have his five kids put a tag on each one.

Through the fifties and sixties, party hunting was pretty much the norm through rural Idaho. People did what they needed to do to fill the freezer. Nobody much cared as long as there was a tag on each deer to come through the check station.

I remember when I was a little kid, on more than one occasion Mom or Auntie would get a call from the payphone nearest the hunting grounds that the hunters had a flat and needed a spare tire, or perhaps two spares.

We little ones were quickly bundled up and driven to the families favorite base camp. But I do not remember any extra tires loaded into the car.

Through the 70's and 80's Idaho's population grew exponentially, as did the number of deer hunters. Hunters were limited to purchase one deer tag per season. And the taking of antlerless animals became strictly controlled.

And the game department started very actively enforcing rules against party hunting.

We never had party hunting here. You have a personal limit. Shoot over it and you broke the law. However, letting someone else tag game happens here on a regular basis. Cousin was a fur buyer from a small town. When we had a lot of Doe, by the end of the season every legal hunter in town had pretty much tagged one.

So how long after wounding it does A's 'its mine' last? The deer likely would survive it so are you expecting B to give it to A that day only? How about if he shoots it next week? Next season?

Officially, we never had party hunting here either. It was illegal. It is just that game was plentiful and need was great in many families, so it was only prosecuted in flagrant cases.

But wasting of the meat would have gotten a guy hung!

Had a situation something like that this year. Last drive....Last day.

There were 5 of us, I could shoot either buck or doe. My cousin, doe only. Both his sons had tagged out earlier that day so they were just drivers and his BIL Steve was out for a doe.

We put 5 out. My cousin was the lone flanker and fired twice right at the start of the drive. He hollered that there was a doe hit in the drive. I was the high driver and had just climbed a spillbank when I saw a tail flick. Saw it was a deer. It took 2 or 3 steps and came into a small opening....I fired and put one through the chest breaking the onside shoulder and putting it down.

I yelled to Steve that it was straight in front of him in the scrub and he tried a head shot to finish it but missed. Didn't matter as the deer expired rather quick.

As we gathered around this doe, we seen that it was the one my cousin had fired at. He fired at it head on and grazed the neck on a severe downward angle and basically just put one heck of a slice in the hide.

It was my deer. I put the lethal shot into it. If my cousin had put a killing shot on that deer, it would have been his as I would have simply anchored it for him. if Steve had hit the head with the finishing shot....It would have still been mine because I put the first lethal shot into it.

We go by who put the first killing shot into the deer. Whoever does that is the one who tags it. What you do with the meat is then up to your own discretion.

My buddy shot a buck that we tracked for several hundred yards but failed to recover. A year later I killed a buck that had a big knot 2 inches above the knee. He said it was the same buck he had shot the year before. Was I supposed to give it to him?

I'd relish the chance to flame someone else's wounded deer, and watch them gut it, and pack it, and process it, and find out it tastes like crap.

I'll finish the job he couldn't, all day long, but no thanks, he can have the meat.

The law here in PA states the person who puts the killing shot on the deer gets its.

If my shot wasn't enough to kill the deer and it runs to someone else it's my fault. It's their deer. I was in this situation neary 15 years ago. Nice 8 came in maybe 100", I had a .223 put it on his heart and squeezed. The deer dropped right there but had his head up looking at me. I put another round in the TC Contender and only had a head shot. Before I could decode to take the shot he jumped and bolted. He made it into the rocks and laurel before I could shoot. I immediately heard another shot. Now I don't believe this guy actually hit the deer, I think he saw it shot and the deer died from my shot. It was turning ugly, we were both getting pretty hot. All I wanted to do was see a second wound and prove he hit the deer. Before we started throwing fists I walked away. A deer just isn't worth it.

I ended up shooting a 130" 9pt later in the season.

Point is, the law says the killing shot owns the deer. It is what it is... If someone in my hunting party wounds one and I finish it, they can have it. Otherwise, the law applies.

A few years ago in Idaho, we had a game warden who admitted to finishing a deer shot by someone else. He became an ex-game warden after paying his fine.

Change a couple small details and this is how my uncle got his best buck, a beautiful 160" 10 pointer. I tracked the buck for hours, determined where he was holed up, organized the drive to push him out into the open again and put 2 slugs into his chest dropping him for good.
My uncle walked over, shot him 2 more times to feel good about it, tagged him and never even bothered to thank me.
My take is, without the spotty blood trail from a non-fatal lower leg wound and plenty of fresh snow, I would have never killed the buck. No hard feelings except he owed me a thank you.

Ridiculous!