Big Deer Small Hunters

[hunter]

I was in my blind at 5:30 opening day and saw nothing till 10:30 when a buck comes along at a trot and I get my 20 Ga up and shoot as soon as I worked the slide I hear a shoot and another hunter comes out and says I hit it. I said let me see if I hit it at which point some one in his party yells it's still thrashing and the hunter says don't shoot and bang he does shoot. Now I'm a guest and I'm trying to be a good sport so I said if you shot it last it's your deer let me just see where I hit it. Well. long story short I hit midway on my side with an exit wound at the opposite front leg and he grazed the back hip on the opposite side because unbeknown to me we were facing each other. I thought we had an agreement not to shoot in my direction and he was on the other side of the field I was told he would be. This shook me up because we were in each other's line of fire. Since the other guy neck shot it last I still did not dispute the deer which BTW was an eight pointer. Now when they hang the deer the story starts to go he shot it and I grazed it WTF I never argued my right to the deer due to the late and maybe unnecessary neck shot which may have been done when the graze was noticed before I got to the deer. When I claimed credit for my shot I was immediately challenged how do you know? I answered we were on opposite sides as were our wounds and the other guy took "credit" for the hip shot which turned out to be only a graze but they kept the deer. Hope your opener was better than mine. I consider myself lucky not to have gotten shot and will never trust my safety to someone else's judgement as you can be in danger and never know it.

[fasteddie]

They sound like the type of hunters to stay away from . If you have other places to hunt , you should try them and not be near these guys . The object of knowing where you and other hunters are supposed to be is an excellent and safe idea if all follow the rules and go to their spots .

[biggamefish]

It sounds like you might have awakened a sleeping hunter.

Those guys sound like scumbags and I agree I would stay away from that group. 

[cprsailor]

I had a similar incident while hunting on private land. I knew where the others in my party were and they knew where I was. I happened to be in a ground blind watching a well worn trail. As I watched a big 6 walk out of the creek bottom and up the trail, I raised my muzzleloader. At that point I saw another guy stand up in full camo, 75 yards away, and take aim at this deer. Unfortunately, he was also aiming in my direction. I waved and yelled. The deer, of course, took off. This guy had the balls to come up to me and complain because I ruined his shot. He said he'd been tracking this deer for 2 miles and that was the reason he was on our land. However, there was fresh snow on the ground and I went back and followed the tracks for about 500 yards. No blood or anything else to indicate it was hit. I could also see where he had cleared out a spot at the base of a tree to sit and it was obvious he had been there for a while. It's guys like this that can give the rest of us a bad name...if they don't kill us first.

[Fantail]

I think to agree with fasteddie. I am not one to be around others who are not concerned about their line of fire. We all like to hunt but it's still your @ss out there. I'm also thinking your up from LI hunting with freinds and it's not like you can just drive up where you were anytime. If that's the case I see three options; you can attempt to express your saftey concerns with your group, if that fails look into your own lease - co-lease next year, meanwhile there's tons of state land.

[hunter]

I agree with all your thoughts and will be more careful from now on.

[screamon demon]

had a simlar issue in 2005 however, i was in a tree stand. i was on state land close to a neighboring property. Three doe came running by8:00AM opening day. Some cowboy from the other property started running through woods firing at these deer. I literally mean running, gun shouldered, and firing. The last deer stood between he and I and he fired again. It was at that time that I yelled over to him and his response was "yeah i see ya" Well we exchanged f-you's and went on our way. As if that whole scenario was not bad enough he never even checked to see if he hit any of the deer. He just went back into his part of the woods. The though of running through the woods with a firearm on my shoulder has never even crossed my mind. I have never been that desperate to shoot at a deer let alone first thing in the morning on opening day.

[nyantler]

Hunter you did the right thing... If that deer was that important to them that they wouldn't take the time to determine who really had the best bullet in the deer, then let them have the deer. They know when they tell the story that they aren't telling the real story no matter what they come up with. And like Fasteddie says.. stay away from those guys in the future...great thread title by the way.. very small hunters.

[biggamefish]

What you should have said to the was " well have fun telling a story that isn't true to all your friends". It might have made them think then again maybe not.

[bart1]

This is the exact situation that has kept me from hunting opening day a couple of years.  People really do need to smarten up and act like adults.  Its amazing that these types of things happen with grown men. I am glad you are home safe! It makes me think that being in a tree on opening day keeps you just a bit safer due to the angle  of shots.

[knehrke]

I love these stories! They remind me of some of the incidents in my own youth, before we leased and regulated who was going to hunt where, etc...

I was driving a thick section of vineyard down near Bath one day with my buddy on the other end. I must have pushed a large eight out the back, cause mid-way through the tangle I hear some guy shoot behind me. I'm thinking to myself, "That's not where he's supposed to be standing". Next thing you know, some yahoo (not my hunting partner) starts running through the vineyard, stopping every 30 or 40 yards to shoot, and yelling, "I got you, you POS. You're dead. I got you."

Now, I don't know what's going on, but I decide to get out of the thick stuff and find out. Turns out he's one of the neighbor's kin and had hit the deer in the hindquarters so it couldn't run very well. He was chasing it through the vineyard, shouting the whole way. My buddy just took cover, cause the shots were coming straight at him. When the yahoo finally put down the deer, he had the audacity to brag to us about how great he was, then ask for a lift in our pickup to cart the deer off the hill and back to his car!

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised...this was the same guy who was banned for five years from hunting the property based on a number of other incidents. Such as waving a loaded gun around like a blackboard pointer; of course, the safety wasn't on. Bad situation. Or my personal favorite, shooting uphill at a running deer while I was directly in the line of fire, shouting and waving the whole time. He blew the deer's muzzle off, what a sad sight that was, so I ended up finishing the animal as it ran by me at less than 30 yards. He comes hauling up the hill to tell me what a great shot he'd made, then after literally five minutes of bragging, looks at the deer and says, "Spit, that's a doe! I don't have a doe permit. Spit!"

Anyway, I ended up using one of my permits on this tiny little dog-like doe. And the guy gives me his phone # and tells me to call him when the meat is ready so I can drop it off! WTF!?!

Needless to say, after many incidents of this nature, following the vineyard saga I haven't been back to hunt. It's too bad, as I grew up on that land, but in retrospect I wonder how nobody got killed. It just goes to show how one person can mess it up for everybody.

[bubba]

I love the Northern zone

[Robinson446]

i play the rule who ever puts on the first shot gets the deer. unless it was like a non leathal shot.

[Doc]

i play the rule who ever puts on the first shot gets the deer. unless it was like a non leathal shot.

I have finished off deer for other hunters when I can plainly see they are wounded. I wait a reasonable amount of time to see if anyone is following the deer. Usually some winded, sweaty old guy will come trudging along following a blood-trail. As far as I am concerned, the deer is theirs. I figure if they took the time to follow up, they should be rewarded with the deer. Yeah they should have made a better shot, but it doesn't always happen and I know that.

My Brother-in-law had a situation last year where he gut shot a buck and the thing crossed a huge ravine (you should see this ravine ..... lol). Anyway, when he got to the top of the otherside, the trail ended with his deer piled up and a couple of guys standing next to it. They had finished the deer off. Not only did these guys give him a hand dragging the deer back up to their camp (It would have been impossible to drag it back across the ravine), but they loaded it in their truck and took him and his deer back down to my place. That's the way it should happen!

Doc

[fasteddie]

Doc --- Those are some ethical hunters !

[nyantler]

Amen...

[Larry]

About ten years ago I killed a P&Y during the bow season so I decided to hunt with my 44mag during the gun season. I was hunting at the bottom of this hill and I herd 3 shots at the top and this big Doe came running right at me so I dropped her with 1 shot she was still alive so I finished her off. Just after I finished off the deer this kid about 16 or 17 came running down the hill and said he had just shot a deer and was running after it (exact words). I could tell by the look on his face that the deer I had shot was his I couldn’t keep the deer so I told him I just finished It off for him. It was his first deer he had shot he told me. I help he field dress the deer and told him I would wait till he came back with his dad. When his dad got there he thanked me for helping his son. While I was packing my gear to move they looked over the deer.  The farther came over and asked me what I shot the deer with and how many times. I said twice with a 44mag. He tells me there are only 2 holes in the deer and none are from a 12ga. I go I know the farther tells me it’s my deer. I tell him no it’s not the look on your sons face when I was standing over his deer I couldn’t take the deer. I just told him when your son shoots his first deer then tell him what happen.

I’m sorry you ran in to group of assholes not everyone is like that. 

[erussell]

I may put it down, but Im not helping them drag it out.