Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting First blood, possession or it depends?

The only issue I've ever had was about 40 years ago in Maine on Diamond Match property in back of my buddies parents farm in Larone. 2nd morning of our hunt I was on stand with a couple other guys spread out along a ridge. A nice forkhorn came by and I took a shot through an opening as it was walking with my 270. I could tell it was hit but it made it up over a little hill and I figured I'd give it some time before I went looking for it. About 15 minutes later a shot rings out close, right over the hill where my deer disappeared. So I go over to see what happened and there is my deer about 50 yards from where I last saw him and this kid who was probably 4 or 5 years younger than me is standing over him all excited. Before I said anything he starts telling me how the deer was feeding with his head down and he shot him in the neck. So I pointed to the hole in the back of it's ribcage and said that's where I shot him a half hour ago. I wasn't sure what to do but I suggested we unload our guns which we did. Then I gutted the deer while he keeps telling me how the deer was standing up. I finished up and said we should drag the deer out. I was trying to avoid arguing about it but unsure how it was going to get resolved. So we started dragging and finally hit the main trail and met up with my buddies father on his tractor. I explained what happened and he asked the kid his side of the story and he admitted that he and his friend were camped in back of the neighbors barn and saw us walking out that morning and followed us keeping their distance. Then when he heard me shoot he ran up to see what happened and saw the deer which he insisted was standing and shot it. My buddies Dad told him to get lost in some not so nice words. We got the deer back to the house and I took it to the check station and got it registered.

About an hour later a warden shows up with the kid and we went over the whole thing again. Apparently the kid left a few details out of the story he told the warden. Like how they followed us and then ran up where I shot and found the deer dead. I finally opened the barn door and showed him where the deer was hit before he shot him in the neck. The warden asked the kid "are you still going to tell me this deer was standing up feeding"? The kid didn't say anything and that was the end of it.

Exactly.

Whoever takes it off it's feet. I jumped a buck last week and got off a quick shot with my 30-30. I hit low it turned out but had good bright red blood for 150 yards then it petered out. My son and I split up to scour the area. A few minutes later he jumped it and knocked it down for keeps. I told him it was his buck

Dad taught me as a kid that the one who puts it down is the winner. That said, I've never shot anything that was wounded.
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PA law, as I was taught, was whomever put the last bullet in it while it was on its feet. I have never had a confrontation but have put down two gut shot deer. I stayed until the initial shooters showed up then told them to come get their deer. I wanted the deer out of its misery but did not want to tag them. I had just the opposite happen to me a few years ago. I was squeezing the trigger on a good buck and just as it was to go off, a doe jumped in front. I pulled the shot into the flesh of the bucks shoulder. I trailed it for about 300 yards when I heard a shot in the direction the deer went. I kept following the trail and came upon 2 hunters gutting it. They were defensive at first but I made it clear that it was their deer and I just wanted to look at it. They were nice after that.

This for sure. Though a good sportsman sometimes sees it best to relinquish his claim for another’s benefit.

Statistically 96% of animals shot, die. When may vary. You want your tag on it make the shot count!

Damn glad a deer is so precise in your area

In AZ I believe the rule is he who puts it down has rights. However, when hunting with friends and family we go by first to hit.

If timing is not a factor, then the number is 100%, since we're talking statistically. Same for those that are not shot.

I can't imagine needing a deer so badly that I'd argue over it with someone.

Back in the day when I hunted public land in Ohio and their was a hunter sitting on every ridge tossing slugs at running deer the custom was whoever knocked the deer down. All the other places I have hunted were not crowded so never became or becomes an issue.

Thats my attitude as well.

Was hunting a friends place when I heard a shot a long ways off. Then I heard dogs barking. 15 minutes later a bleeding doe comes by with a dog on its tail. I put the doe down and the shot scares the dog away. I sit and wait for the guy to show up. He tells me how he shot the deer and has been following it. I said fine, its yours, but next time I shoot the dog. (dog hunting illegal in that area). He turned white as a sheet. He was obviously using dogs to jump them up.

One year that I was sheep hunting on one of Montana's Unlimited tag bighorn sheep units there was an Outfitter with a guided sheep hunter that was camped about 1/4 mile from my camp. My eye doctor was staying in the outfitter's camp, but not hunting with a guide, and I had met the outfitter.

On the second day of the season I knew that the guide was going to take his hunter up the mountain by our camps, so went around the mountain and went up the back side. About half way up the mountain, I found sheep tracks and followed them to two legal rams. I had killed a full curl ram the year before in another unit so I decided to pass on these rams. They were close enough to me that I picked up a golf ball size rock and threw it, underhanded, and hit one of the rams. They both ran up the hill.

A few minuted later I heard a shot from the mountain above me. Then both rams came running down the mountain and one of them had been gut shot and he was dragging his small intestines on the ground, like a rope. The rams split when they saw me (and my dog) with one running south and the wounded one running north.

I didn't like to see the wounded ram suffer, so I went after him and found him standing in the next avalanche chute where I shot and killed him.

I then went up the mountain and found the outfitter, his guide, and their hunter. They had followed the healthy ram out across another wide avalanche chute in the opposite direction that the wounded ram went. I then took them to the fallen sheep and said "Here's your ram."

I then helped them to dress, quarter and pack the ram over the mountain and down to their camp. That was the 9th year that that outfitter had been hunting sheep in that unit and this was the first ram that any of his hunters had shot.

He was so happy that one of his hunters had finally got a ram that he invited me to his camp for dinner that night where he gave me his biggest Porterhouse steak and made sure that my dog got plenty of the steak bones.

As a side note, I went back into that area the next year, by myself and my dog, and shot the other ram.

What I'm reading is that there a lot of question at least ethically. Most of us have shot so many deer that it wouldn't matter much one way or another, but I do wonder if legally it would help settle an argument if it was addressed in the state's game laws. Then I suppose it could be left up to an individual to give it away in those "it depends" situations. I try to hunt an area where I'll never see another hunter in the woods for the entire season. The deer are less pressured and moving naturally.

Nice gesture Buffybr and a great picture. Sheep hunting with a dog seems kind of unusual to this flatlander though.

I had this issue come up years ago. I see a few problems with some statements.

As to the 1st hunter to, ‘put a lethal shot into the animal’? Who is the arbitrator of what a lethal shot is? Not so clear out in the woods. Will this shot prove lethal in one hour? What if the animal may live for days?

This deer came by with a grazing shot across the back, our party killed it. The 1st shooter followed tracks in the snow for a mile, then came to us. We gave him the deer, didn’t have to. He later told some others we were ‘trying to take his deer’. My 1st inclination was to wrap his rifle across a tree, 3v1. Later when he came back on this private property the owner said he was no longer welcomed.

I later called a game warden about such issues, his answer was succinct, but still a little room for adjustment. He said the deer belongs to who killed it, then tagged it. He left it at that.

There is room for common sense, problem is, some one may deal with may not have any sense.

Its really not that hard folks.

Who took it off its feet - if its still running it ain't yours yet. From there you can determine if you want to be amicable with the other party or not.


Also note, most "told the other guy go ahead and take it" stories are does or baskets. Not too many guys giving up a gut shot 180" some shmuck has been pushing for 1/4 mile...

Yeah, that falls under the "it depends" part.

Need? Not at all. Still, I can imagine a fellow getting pretty worked up if somebody tried to scam or steal a deer from him.