I think someone robbed me today!

[30-30man]

It was about 8:00 this morning as I decided to use the extra hour and hunt before church today.  A large 12pt. came out chasing three does.  He was about 30 yards from me when I shot him behind the front shoulder.  I was using Winchester 150gr hollow points in one of my 30-30s.  He fell and  jumped a barb wire fence in one of my pastures.  I waited about 30 minutes as I didn't want him to run far.  He bled everywhere and left a thick blood trail about 200 yards through some very thick underbrush.  It stopped suddenly as he entered another large field.  I looked for three hours and even used my beagle but no sign of the deer. I've never seen a blood trail this thick and the deer not drop within a few yards.  I know the bullet had to have hot the heart or majpr artery with all the blood I saw.  While I was waiting I heard a fourwheeler and the only thing I can think of is someone stole my deer.  I asked my neighbor who leases out his place, but he didn't know anything.  I never made it to church and it gave my wife the excuse for another "That's why you don't hunt on Sunday sermon!"

[Hairtrigger]

I don't think it was ever yours so I can't believe it was stolen. Found maybe stolen no. You don't know for sure that deer is even dead.

[Graybeard]

I had a similar thing happen to me many years ago on a muzzle loader hunt in the CWMA here in Bama. I had a doe run right under my stand and I shot down into her severing the spine but a bit far back. She went down but I wasn't able to get reloaded in time as she pulled herself out of site with her front legs before I could get loaded and then get down on the trail.

She made a trail a blind man could follow pulling herself along thru the leaves leaving blood all the way. Well all the way to where the trail just ended. I'm confident some other hunter saw/heard her crawling along and before I caught up carried her away. I figure she must have been dead as I heard no shots close enough to have been a finisher. A freshly killed deer with a trail to it like that makes it pretty clear someone is on the trail behind it. I'd call that theft. Had they waited around awhile until I got there and told me they wanted it I'd have been happy to let them take it home as I don't eat deer meat and would just have given it to someone anyway. But I'd say the person who took it stole it.

At least it allowed me to go back to hunting even if I didn't see anymore that day I did get to spend all day in the woods. It also saved me the work of a long difficult drag back to my truck so it was not all bad.

[JKump]

Well, I was hunting up in the Carolina's this weekend and just found this 12 pointer laying around in a field........
Just kidding.  I work as a Police Officer In a Rural Georgia town, about once a deer season have to respond to a deer dispute.  This happen far more than folks like.  If you did not shoot it then don't take it.  Hang around if you have to but let the rightful shoot claim his deer.

[darat100]

Jkump

Could be worse.  I had a buddy hunting public ground.  He shot a doe, went to the truck for a pen (fool didn't have one in his pack) to mark his tag before moving her.  When he got back, it was gone.  He had even been nice enought to field dress it for the theif before he realized he didn't have a pen.  At least that was his story, and another of our buddies backed him on it.

[dukkillr]

I don't think it was ever yours so I can't believe it was stolen. Found maybe stolen no. You don't know for sure that deer is even dead.

One of the first cases I ever read in Property Law:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson_v._Post

[30-30man]

I'd bet my farm that the deer died. There's no way anything could have survived with as much blood loss as I saw.   I've never seen one bleed that much without hitting the heart.  It was as if someone was pouring it from a milk jug and then it just stopped at a small pool. Most of the deer that I've shot in all my years that dropped on the spot, never bled that much.  I don't know if I've ever had one bleed that much.The blood trail was not spotted here and there, it was a constant stream left on the ground.  In some places there were large splotches.  It has been so dry here I could not make out any tracks from an atv in the dry hay field.  I would have given the deer to them as I don't eat it either.  All I wanted was the mount.  It's just frustrating as I will never know what happened to it.  I'm going to premium bullets now and will use the hollow points at the range.  I'm done with them.

[hawkenman]

In Florida once you legally kill a deer it becomes your personal property. I had a friend that killed a nice buck and left it to get his sons to help drag it back. Before leaving he looped the strap of his backpack around the deer's neck. When they returned the deer was gone, only the backpack remained. As they arrived at the parking lot a guy was there with my friends deer in his truck. Words were exchanged and the Game Warden was called. The bad guy was adamant at his innocence, finally the game warden asked my friend if he could prove this was his deer. He said, "sure, check the ear canal of his left ear and you'll find a 1995 nickel I jammed in there before I left to get my boys". Digging around with his pocket knife the game warden found the nickel. The bad guy then confessed to taking the deer. He was given a notice to appear in court and was convicted of petty theft. 

[billy_56081]

  It could very well have survived. Some of the best blood trails I have followed ended with the deer running off. A deer shot in the brisket or a leg bleeds profusely. A huge blood trail on the ground for a long ways tells me one thing. The chest cavity is not filling with blood. A pint or 2 of blood dribbled across the ground looks like alot. If you have a chest cavity hit deer that drops alot of blood on the ground there is many times more inside them. I have tracked brisket shot deer through a corn field and came out covered with blood on my pants legs after jumping the deer and watching it run away.

[Hairtrigger]

Wouldn't there be signs of a 4 wheeler and where the deer was loaded?

[rebAL]

30 minute wait on a heart/lung shot deer @ 30 yards?  The deer was likely dead within 3 minutes.  I would have waited 3-5 minutes tops in heavily hunted area.  If it wasn't a good hit, a 30 minute wait would be justified.  Sorry for your loss!

[backstrap]

In Florida once you legally kill a deer it becomes your personal property. I had a friend that killed a nice buck and left it to get his sons to help drag it back. Before leaving he looped the strap of his backpack around the deer's neck. When they returned the deer was gone, only the backpack remained. As they arrived at the parking lot a guy was there with my friends deer in his truck. Words were exchanged and the Game Warden was called. The bad guy was adamant at his innocence, finally the game warden asked my friend if he could prove this was his deer. He said, "sure, check the ear canal of his left ear and you'll find a 1995 nickel I jammed in there before I left to get my boys". Digging around with his pocket knife the game warden found the nickel. The bad guy then confessed to taking the deer. He was given a notice to appear in court and was convicted of petty theft. 

Never in my life have i herd of a hunter putting a coin in a dead deers ear whats the purpose of this sounds to me like he new the deer was going to get taken.

[Graybeard]

I don't think there is any way one could KNOW a deer would be stolen but it's not a bad idea to have some means to prove to a game warden it's your deer "just in case" a situation arrises when you're in heavily hunted woods.

Once long ago I was hunting in the Coosa WMA here in Bama with two other guys. One of them shot a nice ten point buck from a long ways off. He was high up in a tree in his climbing stand and shot the buck moving thru the trees a long way off. He was convinced he made a killing shot so called us on the CB radios we all had with us to come to help him track it.

We did the best we could to find it but never did locate the buck or much blood at all as it didn't seem to bleed much. Later he heard a shot from the general area he felt the deer had gone into. A while later the guy who made the shot drove by us and stopped to show us his buck. It was the one my hunting partner had shot. Mike felt he had made a good chest shot on the buck but it turned out all he did was break a leg just below the body. There was absolutely no perferation of the chest. The killing shot was a neck shot and the leg and neck were the only two bullet wounds it had. We checked it over good to see.

The man with the buck offered to give it to Mike IF he felt his shot would have killed it which it was obvious to all it could not have. He told the man no take the deer and go as he had killed it. The fellow left and then Mike and Dennis the other guy I was with got to talking about how nice the buck was and Mike then started to get mad he hadn't taken the buck. He worked himself up to the point he was convinced in his own mind his shot had killed the deer and the guy walked up on a deer deer and to cover himself shot it in the neck as it lay dead. I tried to explain to him that his bullet hand only broken a leg and no way was it his buck. But he got so mad he actually went chasing the man with the buck intent on taking it back even if it took holding a gun on the man to do it. He was like a mad man.

That was the first of several incidents with that fellow that made me realize he was NOT a person I wanted to be around so I stopped hunting with him completely. Luckily he never caught up to the guy as I think it would have gotten nasty all for no reason as the buck clearly would have survived the minor wound his bullet had inflicted. People get crazy about deer some times.

One time I shot a fairly nice 7 point buck right thru the lungs with a .270 Winchester from less than 50 yards. It ran as deer so shot normally do for perhaps 100 yards or a bit more. There was another hunter pulling out a deer he had shot a little while earlier that the deer ran within perhaps 50-75 yards of on his death run.

He later commented to me he almost decided to shoot the buck even tho it was clear the buck was nearly down at the time and admitted had he done so he would have claimed it. He already had killed the only deer he could legally take that day even tho it was a doe and he had no permit for a doe but one of the folks in his hunting party had drawn a doe permit that morning and he planned to use it for his otherwise illegal doe.

He was hunting with his father, sister and a friend. The father helped me to drag my deer the final 75-100 yards up the hill to the road. Then the friend and the hunter near me got to talking about what a nice buck it was and that the friend suggested to them all they should just gang up on me and take it from me by "whipping my ass and taking it if necessary". This even tho they had heard me call to the two fellows I was hunting with and heard them on the radio say they would get the truck and come to where I was as soon as they could. I showed them my .357 magnum revolver and told them that if any "ass whipping" was attempted someone was gonna end up dead. The father is the only thing (well ok maybe the .357 mag as well) that convinced the other two that wasn't a smart idea.

Such crazy folks. Had they asked politely I'd have given them the deer as I don't eat deer meat and was gonna give it to someone anyway. I ended up giving it to my hunting partners but it really matered not to me who I gave it to but I didn't plan to have a theif take it from me by force. I just don't know what the think of the mentality of some folks you find out in the woods.

[backstrap]

Gosh i sure fill for u guys that have to go through that stuff like that around here if it came to that i wouldnt hunt sound to me like some 1 might losse there life over a dam deer i guess there are crazy enough people out there they would do that, these out of staters around here are starting to cause trouble for the local guys and thats with us local guy on privet property

[30-30man]

To be completly honest, the only reason I waited so long was that I had my nephew in on the adventure and we agreed he'd come and get me around 9:45 that morning.  It is just a safety thing as to not walk around when people are in the stand hunting.  It was very hard to do, it almost killed me but I have to practice what I preach.  I'll admit, I would have jumped down as soon as I shot if he would not have been with me.

I hit that deer in the right spot, it wasn't a gut wound or a leg shot.  I believe I could hit anything at 30 yards.  The thing that bothers me the most is not only do I think someone took it but they trespassed to do so.  There is no way I can gate and fence my entire place and trespassing has never been a problem. My neighbor and I own all the property on my road so trespassing has never been a problem until he started leasing.  I know times are tough so I can't say I blame him for what people are willing to pay now for a good lease.  I guess I'll need to be more diligent in keeping them out though.  My neighbor has buried 2x4s with nails to flatten people's tires in areas the club is suppose to leave alone. It has worked as I've seen a couple of Chinese atvs left in the woods with flat tires.    I'll never go that far but maybe I'll post a few more signs.

[masteryoda]

Last year during goose season an out of state hunter( don't recall where he was from)  shot a goose and another hunters dog went out after it. He was afraid he was not going to get his goose so he shot and killed the dog. All he would have had to do was ask for it. He has to go and shoot someones dog for it.

[kennisondan]

Here in Louisiana and in most places I would guess.. the actual law is that the game belongs to the state until it is harvested; it is not harvested when I shoot it but is harvested when I locate and pick it up, take physical possession of it..
what is right is a different story.. lots of wrongs being done out there like talked about.... I would like to be able to shoot and track when necessary and not worry about another finding and taking or shooting my dead or wounded animals, but some folks don't see it that way..
I have on two occasions seen wounded deer run stumble and either fall or lie down and die in time ... waited several hours... walked up.. dead deer... checked around the other hunters' camps and campgrounds for stories of wounded deer inorder to give it to the shooter... I get plenty of meat for eating each year not to have to take another hunter's meat..
but I will not let it sit and waste in the feild... and there are more folks than I would like to admit that shoot and if it does not fall down right there on the report, assume it is time to shoot another one and get a bigger gun etc.
don't even look or trail a minute.
that is probably why the game is not owned until located....
interestingly, here it is legal to cross a property boundary to recover game that you have shot for that purpose only.. etc.
I would not want to take a shot and not be able to follow it up...
I do go for instant kills when possible on a heavily hunted area when that occurs, like a spine shot or a neck or head shot on occasion. I have had deeer taken from me that I was trailing or that ran and fell in hearing and ot of sight.
dk
dk