I've heard of people folding up a business card really tiny then shoving it down in the ear cannal for secondary identification.


-DallanC

last year while deer hunting I saw a doe clearly wounded coming across a cut bean field toward me. I set up and sent one down the pike into the neck of the on coming doe. The deer had been gut shot and needed to be dressed. About the time the gut pile hit the ground, comes a guy looking for his deer. I told him the story and gave him his deer.

I figured he tracked the deer a good distance and found it in better shape that he could have wished for. Maybe someday he will return the favor.

longwalker

In the State land here, If you shoot you better make it a head shot or forget tagging it your self.

Longwalker...I'll hunt with ya....Anyday...Well done.

Basically, when you swallow it, then its yours...........for awhile!

I myself go by "Who shot it first its theres"

Plus if I didn't shoot it I wouldnt try to claim it as my own after all it isnt mine its the other guys. Taking someone elses shot and killed deer or any animal is effectivly STEALING.

Now if I saw a deer that wasnt shot properly (hitting a non-vital area and just wounded) running around infront of me I'd shoot it properly in the chest to put it out of its missery but if the owner showed up its theres, and if they dont show up I'll tag the deer but I certianly wont claim its mine at camp or at home.

Dimitri

Ran into a simialar discussion a while back. Someone actually did the research and found that the animal belongs to the Last person to inflict a mortal wound. As for that farmer that claimed another persons bear I would have told the game warden to either arrest him or show me the state law that says the farmer was in the right.

longwalker wrote:

last year while deer hunting I saw a doe clearly wounded coming across a cut bean field toward me. I set up and sent one down the pike into the neck of the on coming doe. The deer had been gut shot and needed to be dressed. About the time the gut pile hit the ground, comes a guy looking for his deer. I told him the story and gave him his deer. I figured he tracked the deer a good distance and found it in better shape that he could have wished for. Maybe someday he will return the favor. longwalker

I had the opposite happen on public ground in the Shawnee forest.

I hear a shot about 300 yards south and shortly see a cleary gutshot doe (read her guts were hanging betweeen her legs) come over the ridge into the ravine I was set up in. I dropped her where she stood and went over the hill to see who had shot her. I find a hunter in a ladder stand making no move to get down and say "Your doe is on top of the hill." He replies."I don't want that gut shot thing, you killed you tag it..."

I walked away before I got mad enough to yank his ladder down. When I got to the doe I was shocked and pleasantly surprised to see that the gut shot missed so badly that he had only unzipped her belly muscles. No meat was tainted. I tagged her and took her home but i still shake my head at the idiots in our world.

I'm with Longwalker on this one. I wouldn't hesitate to do the same, or assist in tracking the animal.
Dawgdad brings up a good point. Around here, a hunter is legally required to make a good faith effort to track and recover any game shot at. Wanton waste of game animals is punishable by law.
Everyone that I hunt with shoots often, even in the off season, knows their gun and will pass up marginal shots. That's just the proper thing to do.
Yotebuster

Two years ago, my son effected a 'mortal wound' on a huge 8 point (eastern count) White tail. He's in his mid twenties, a good hunter, a fine rifle shot, I was working that day and not hunting with him. The wounded deer (admittedly not dead) was thrashing it's way down over a VERY steep hillside when another hunter shot AT it. The other hunter claimed the deer, my son helped him load it into his truck. My son maintains that only one bullet had hit the deer. Next evening we saw the deer on the local news being checked in by the other hunters 9 year old son. In an adjoining county.

I told my son I was proud of him (for not shooting that sob) and I'll tell you guys now. My son is not a wimp, he has shown maturity far beyond his years on many occasions. I'm really glad that that same maturity and good judgement is being exhibited here.

I was reading this to see where it would all go.. I consider the game animal mine when I pull the trigger on it, if by some chance it runs over the hill and someone else shoots and downs it, it is thiers, unless they say hey your animal is here.. I have run into a few slobs that have done the no shot kills, but more often i have run into people on the highways saying hey that deer that just got hit, do you want it? its a shame we as a people focus on the negitive out there, slob hunters, poachers and the like, we need to focus on the good guys a little more to try to win some better coverage for ourselves..

Like Bushy said, I'm pretty much out on my own when I hunt and it hasn't come up for me. But I figure, fatal shot =my animal. Longwalker, kudos on doing the right thing.

Where I hunt there are very few other people around except the ones I'm hunting with, so I've never really had that problem. Plus the fact that we are not as crowded around here...... there are less then a million people in all of Saskatchewan.

Manitoba as well, less than a million people, area about the same as Texas. I keep reading that more and more people are moving away from Manitoba and I just think "not fast enough" LOL

Same here.... we were over a million for a while but then everybody thought it was sweeter in Alberta and away they went. I think that's good, more room for me.......