Judgement Call part 2

[nitrobass]

OK so here's another "where do you stand" question.

Years ago I shot a goose that was wing tipped and started to glide after I shot it. It coasted about 250 yards and landed in some other guy's duck dekes, where they shot it. I went over there to claim 'my' goose and they wouldnt give it to me, or at least they were giving me a really hard time about it.

I've heard of this happening with deer, elk, etc where someone hits it and someone else finishes it off and tags it. Who's right?

[seadog]

Let it go unless your are prepared to die for it!! It just isn't worth it most of the time, especially for a bird. The question gets a little trickier for big game. I've never ran into this problem myself yet, and hope I never do. Most animals aren't worth risking your life over.

[Swamp Puppy]

well, i guess there are 2 ways to look at it. technically speaking, whoever kills it can claim it. afterall, it wasn't dead yet and therefor you can hardly claim that you killed it. on the other hand, the courteous thing to do would have been for the other hunters to have killed "your" cripple and return it to you had you come looking for it.

personally, i always try to follow the courteous route. i even stopped hunting for about 30 minutes today to help a guy from another blind locate a cripple that ended up in the grass near our area and i have had other hunters on many occasions finish off a bird for me and have it waiting when i showed up looking for it. none of them HAD to do this, but it sure was nice of the to do so.

[nitrobass]

I used the duck hunting example because thats personally happened to me and it came to mind but I'm really interested in where ya'll stand when it comes to big game.

[Mello-Yello]

This is really pretty simple. Possession is 95% of the law. I'm guessing the other 5% is who is bigger?

:grin:

There are so many variables that it's hard to just nail it down with one answer. Certainly, whoever is most insistent (and dangerous) will likely win out. As stated, unless there's something really special about this animal, I'm letting the other guy have it.

A good friend of my Dad's shot a bull elk years ago, and once he got it quartered up (and tagged), three guys convinced him at gunpoint that it was theirs. After minimal discussion, he grabbed his pack and climbed up the hill without the elk. At about 200 yds, he proceeded to blow the hams to pieces w/his .300.... :grin:

[Big TULE]

Has to be a judgement call. If it is me i will shoot another one. If it my sons first no way. you are going to get it. My brother works with a guy who lost an elk to 2 guys. 3 days later he ran into one of them hiking on a trail. The guy didn't even recognize him. He hit him with the but of his gun knocking him down, took his bolt out of his rifle and launched it into the woods. Who knows if the guy ever found it. Now that is sweet justice.

[ 10-13-2003, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: Rauly ]

I killed a deer that had been shot in the back leg and gut this year and gave it to the person that shot it first.


[img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] I felt that was the right thing to do. [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img]

[Bait O' Eggs]

I think technically who kills the animal owns it. I have never finished off a cripled animal so dont know how it would play out in the field if it happened.

I had a brother-in-law out from wisconsin several years ago cripple up nice bull elk. We had a good blood trail and followed it to a gut pile and a couple guys skinning the elk. They claim it came around the hill hobbling and they finished it off, I never heard the shot, but who knows. We helped them pack THEIR bull off the hill since we were there.

I had a brother knock a bull down and when he got to the elk somebody was standing over it with their tag on it. It almost came to blows when my brother walked away, and this guy would have picked the wrong guy to fight with.

I dont think I would have any desire in claiming a wounded animal. If the other person wanted the animal and thought it was theirs they could have it. [img]graemlins/lurk.gif[/img]

My hunting partner and myself slipped in a bull several years ago. He got first shot at 100 yards and the animal ran, I took a shot and it went down. Their was a couple dozen guys on the road watching us sneak on this bull. The gallery was split on who they thought killed it. Several thought the first shot hit the bull and it was a delayed fall, others thought the busted shoulder blade would have put it down and the second shot put him down. All I know is the when I shot the animal went down immediately and it had ran 40 yards before I shot. We both thought we killed it, and to this day have friendly discussions about it. We drew straws, I lost and had to tag it, my buddy got to keep hunting. He killed another bull the next day

[periwinkle]

Many years ago my brother in law and I were standing side by side and someone had spooked a small herd of elk in the St. Helens area,, and one of the trotting elk was a bull,, we both raised our rifles and fired almost simultaneously,, and the elk disappeared.. We crossed the canyon and found it under a small fir, in a depression, still not knowing who downed it..... when we dressed it out --2 holes behind the shoulder about 3" apart, both thru the lungs.. One bullet had not even exited on the far side. Flipped a coin.......He got to hunt the next day in a 'torrential' rain storm... different deal tho with 'meat hungry' strangers!!!!

[Dave's not here]

I saw a couple of guys take a deer from a guy who shot it. It was cralling acrossa road after beind shotand this woman walked up and shot it and then claimed it. I also had a woman tell me she should get the jackpot i won because she had played the machine for a long time.

[tailchaser]

I've had one and only one ever taken from me. Mostly because I didn't know any better and I was only 16.

I shot my first elk with a bow hunting by myself in an afternoon near my buddies house. I had talked to a guy earlier that was hunting the same general area and after we parted I spotted the herd. To say the least I snuck up on the herd and shot a small 3 pt bull in the group. They scattered and after an hour of waiting I started on the blood trail. It was an easy path to follow with blood sprayed everywhere and he only went about 75 yards with one through his lungs. Well when I find the animal this same guy was gutting him out with his tag on it. I told him thanks but he didn't have to do that, and he said what do you mean, this is MY ELK! Oh and by the way do you want to help me pack it out, I'll give you a tenderloin. I dang near shot him when he said that. But it just so happened that my dad was a Lt. at OSP and I called him at work. He showed up with a gamie about 45 minutes later and confronted the guy. To say the least he was messing his pants, but in the end wouldn't budge. He had put a second arrow hole in him (probably when he was dead) and had his tag on it, so in the end there was nothing I could do. As it turned out he was 3 miles from his truck and we weren't about to give him a ride. We actually watched for three hours to make sure he took all the meat, otherwise the gamie could've confiscated it for wasting of meat. What a way to start off with your first elk.

tc

[Lured In]

Personally I have never had this happen in big game hunting, but have seen numerous situations like the one Nitrobass describes while waterfowling.

1. The guys near you cripple a bird and it falls near you. (Not dead, but not flying). I retrieve the duck/goose and give it to them.

2. The guys near you wing a duck/goose and it flies over your spread and you finish it off. I retrieve the duck and take it over and offer it to them. After all, I wouldn't have had a shot if they didn't wing it. (Probably 50% of the time they say "We weren't good enough to bring down, you were, keep it.")

I would expect others to follow suit.

What REALLY irritates me are the guys who cripple/wing a bird that falls 200 yards away and they make no effort to retrieve it. I see this happen many times each year at Sauvie. It makes me sick. [img]graemlins/1zhelp.gif[/img]

[danger]

My Grandfather, now 78 years old and still kills elk with a bow, once was a very stout young man and put a cedar shaft into one of the nicest 4x4 blacktail bucks you will ever see. He was hunting in a crowded unit and there was about 3” of new snow on the ground, so the blood trail this deer was putting out was obvious. After hitting the deer he let just a few minutes go by before feeling like he had to run the trail over fear of loosing it. Sure enough after a half hour or so of tracking the deer he found it surrounded by 4 other men. Playing dumb he asked whose deer it was and one of the men pointed to another in congratulations. After a few expletives from my Grandfather he rolled the buck over to see about ¼” of the broadhead sticking out. He pulled the broken shaft out of the deer and matched it with the other half of the his arrow that he had found along the trail. End of discussion. Grandpa still has the arrow hanging off of that deer’s shoulder mount.

What enjoyment do people get out of lying to their friends…and even worse themselves!

Early 80's, Nerta and me were on a ridge east of Sumpter above some heavily posted private land hunting elk. We see a gut shot bull come up the ridge from the ranch and we kill it. After we gut it we pulled it over to some shade and wait. About 30 minutes we see a guide and a client (pro football player according to Nerta) “tracking” the blood trail. We stepped out of the shade and called to them. The guide acted like he was going to fight us for the elk until we calmed him down and let the client tag “His” animal. A big thanks you from the client and nothing from the guide. We did the right thing here.

Some people are just jerks.

[nitrobass]

I dont see how anyone can get any satisfaction off of shooting/claiming someone else's cripple - deer, bird, elk, or otherwise. It sure doesnt take a good hunter to do that. I'm betting that guys that do that are the ego types that are more concerned with filling thier tags than having a good hunting experience. Tagging someone else's animal sure cant be good for the hunting conscience.

One reason I bowhunt where I do is that I'd rather avoid this situation. I take my elk hunting too seriously and I'm not sure how I'd react if I had to deal with it.

[id. painter]

I have never had it happen with a stranger but, as a rule, we always gave the kill to the guy who drew first blood. The first blood rule is ours and has settled several situations like this for us. But , put it to a couple of guys who havent herd of such a thing(strangers) and try to convince them that its the best, most resonable conclusion , it might not work. id . p.