My First Deer

[cyprant]

Its Saturday morning, the second day of Illinois gun season and I am out in a stand on my folks property. I had hunted the whole day before and heard about 50 shots ring out all around me, but saw nothing. At about an hour into legal shooting time I heard my first shot of day. I was beginning to wonder why I hadn't heard any body shooting around us yet, but this shot was close, very close. I quickly grabbed my mono pod and my Ruger super black hawk and got ready for a herd of deer to head my way. Just as expected a deer came hauling ass down a hill near me and made a 90* turn right towards me. It was shot, and running on just 3 legs. I quickly thought to my self that I should help the hunter who shot this deer from getting too far away so once she was broadside to me I put two in her at about 10 yards away while running. She hit the ground but contuniued to attempt to run. She laid down about 30 yards from me to die.

I know I just shot my first deer, but I didn't feel like she was mine. Strange feeling for sure. After about an hour or so she tried to get up again so I shot her again in the neck. (Only shot I had from my position.) I got down from the stand to investigate. By now my old man was on his way over on the 4 wheeler and we met at the deer. She was still breathing so he put another one in her head. We discovered her leg was shot off but there was no blood trail coming from where she came from. My old man then told me that that was my deer because the hunter who shot it 30 seconds before me only crippled her and didn't kill her, nor did they come looking. She wouldn't have died from her leg being blown off because she wasn't losing any blood. For some reason I wasn't happy. I felt like it was not my deer, and I wouldn't have shot this deer if I thought it meant it would be mine. I was just tring to help as I have been taught. She was on the run and my innitial shot was not Clean. I came to find out I missed once. Hit her once in the neck and once from the gut through her neck on the opposite side... Disappointing for sure...I have put many hours in the stand with my bow before this and last year waiting for the perfect opportunity to take a perfect shot on my first deer. No one would have to finish her off or cripple her before I had my time to take her...

Maybe I have laid in bed thinking of that moment so long that I made it impossible to actually achieve... I guess I feel disappointed in how my first deer down happened. But I don't think I should be. I just am.

 

[Que]

You certainly prevented that deer from suffering and you helped the sport and continued proper conservation. Thank you.

 

[buckstopshere]

You did the right thing for the deer dude. You should feel good about that. Too bad you couldn't get a better shot on her so she didn't lay there suffering so long. Learn from it and move forward.

As for if that's your deer or not, our rule (and I believe most subscribe to this same belief) whoever drew first blood, it's their deer. Who's to say the old guy with the 4 wheeler wouldn't have caught up to her and finished her off without anyone else intervening. But that's totally your call. That's just what we do.

 

[bocefus78]

You did good. Maybe not exactly how you wanted it to go down, but trust me when I say, almost none of the deer you will kill "follow the script" so to say. You ended the suffering of a critter, taught yourself a lesson about other hunters and their lack of ethics, and got your first kill from it. I bet you have some deer karma coming your way for this....keep hunting and the next one will be a much better experience for you.

 

[42769vette]

You did the right thing bud. IMO A deer with the injuries you described would have had a painfull drawn out death. As to who's deer it is, its a mute point. You did the right thing no matter who's deer it was.

 

[yote hunter]

The law says whoever shoots last owns the deer, so if your the last to shoot the deer is yours..... Plain and simple.. This is Indiana law anyway, can't really speak for Ill. Law ? Congrats on you first deer...

 

[T.Lex]

I guess what I was taught is that whoever killed it, gets it. I mean, the initial wound was probably fatal - eventually. But, that initial shot was also a "miss" because the prey didn't die from it. If the deer had bedded down in front of you and died without you firing a shot, I'd say it was the first hunter's. In that case, maybe you should've tried to find him/her - which is a risky endeavor at best.

I remember pheasant hunting with my grandfather (which is, of course, an imperfect analogy) as a teen. If someone winged a bird, and someone else knocked it out of the sky, then it went to whoever killed it. Maybe that was a family thing, but that's just my experience.

Something else I just thought of - she'd lost the leg, but no blood? Are you sure it was a fresh wound? She might've gotten spooked by the shot, but not hit. In that case, it is totally yours. I've never heard of a freshly amputated limb that wasn't bleeding. Not saying it can't or didn't happen, just saying I'd be surprised.

 

[HICKMAN]

I would say you wrapped a tag around a deer. You did something that needed to be done and put down an animal so it wouldn't suffer, same as you would have if it was hit by a car.


YOUR first deer will be a personal experience for you, something you will have a better memory of than this, something you won't forget and will enjoy because you were hunting.

Kudos on doing the right thing.

 

[johnwhite]

better than my first deer. i got a good shot on it come to find latter it was a lung shot but that damn thing led me on a five mile run through the woods before it dropped. i was 13 at the time and 5 miles cross country was an exercise in torture. it wasn't the last to run on me after a shot but it was or seemed to be the longest

 

[MRP2003]

You did the right thing and I thank you for doing it. It is a shame the other hunter did not come looking for his deer. There may not have been blood but there would have been hair that he could have seen. I would also think that the deer probably fell when its leg got shot but got up and ran off.

My buddy shot a deer but thought he missed. It layed down after it was shot then got back up. From his story, I thought he hit it so we went looking for it and ended up jumping it and then proceeded to track it for 2 hrs. When we found it, my buddy missed again (later found out that his sights were way off even at 50yds). I then crossed the river to track it further while he went all the way around to try to head it off. I ended up shooting it after I crossed the river as it had layed down 20 yards from the bank. By the way, the river is not navigable by boat, it was only approx. 18" deep where I crossed.

I think a lot of hunters that I have run into, would have not double checked to see if they had hit the deer and would have given up when they saw it running away or not tracked the tiny spots of blood for 2 hrs for a doe. Maybe most would have for a huge buck.

By the way, I tagged the deer which my buddy agreed with

 

[Hookeye]

Done it twice at my old spot. Nobody around to claim the bad shots. Burned my tag on 'em.

 

[hysteria]

Was the hunter that made the leg shot and didn't come looking for it hunting on your folks property?

 

[cyprant]

Thanks for the kind words.

To answer a few questions: the leg was not completely amputated, but was hanging on by tendons and skin. The main bone was shot through. When I say "no blood", I mean very little to no blood. I I walked the trail he came in on and found only 1 drop of blood.

The hunter was hunting on neighboring property. Not with us and we don't know them.

 

[trailrider]

Its all good brother. The right thing happened. You'll get that "right" momoment

 

[Sgt7330]

The deer was running and obviously still free game, congrats on your first deer. You had enough sense and integrity to be concerned it would be another hunter's animal, so that is good to see. Many people in the woods wouldn't care.

 

[cschwanz]

Good on you for putting it down. I shot a small 7 pointer a few years back (I don't like to shoot young bucks. I want a mature deer or ill go without a buck for the year) because he was badly hurt and limping through the woods. Its the ethical thing to do.

I've always contemplated your scenario as we sometimes hunt very close to our neighbors property and vice versa, them close to us. My vote is who made the better killing shot? They shot the leg, you shot the vitals and then the head/neck to finish it off. If they can't do better than to hit the leg of a deer, they don't deserve it. Enjoy your deer!!!

 

[Bounty Hunter]

Congrats on your first deer!! That is a tough call.

Several years ago, the neighbor kid where I hunted, shot a doe. I did not know at the time, if he hit it or not. About a half hour later, I saw a doe, leaning against a tree about 50 yards away, all hunched up and acting funny. I let her go on, and later found out the kid hit her. I felt bad, and they never did find her.

Another time, I heard two shots from across the road, and about five minutes later, a big old nine pointer came from that direction. I wondered if it was hit by the guy across the road, and was not sure whether to take him or not. I saw no blood, and he was acting good, so I put him down in his tracks.
When I walked up to the deer, I saw the shot in the neck that I took, and also two more holes, just under the arm pit, and a trickle of blood from them. They were just fleshy wounds, just under the armpit. Did not even hit any muscle, just whistled through the skin under the front leg.

when the guy came up, I showed him the two holes, and told him, that he hit the buck both times. He took a look, and told me that I put him down and it was my deer. I too felt a little funny about taking it, even though the two shots he took never even made the deer limp, let alone been lethal.

I get why you are feeling the way you are, but enjoy your first deer, and be glad it did not suffer. It is the sportsman thing to do, which sometimes can be rare anymore.

 

[cwillour]

Cleaning up for others isn't much fun, but you did the right thing IMO. If the other hunter didn't show up near the stand or at your family's house, I agree with your dad that there's a pretty good chance they weren't even trying to track it. While the deer may not have bled out, I doubt it would have made it through the winter without that leg. If nothing else, you kept it from becoming coyote or bobcat food.

 

[Willie]

In hunting it does not always go the way we want it to.. first or last deer.

You did good..

OTOH -

Deer are tough critters and I've seen a bunch of three legged deer while out and about. A busted up leg does not mean an automatic death sentence for a deer..

 

[Mgderf]

Good on you for putting it down. I shot a small 7 pointer a few years back (I don't like to shoot young bucks. I want a mature deer or ill go without a buck for the year) because he was badly hurt and limping through the woods. Its the ethical thing to do.

I did something similar just yesterday, but I got a reward for it!
Sitting in my brothers stand on Thanksgiving morning.
Cold, wind blowing, and I was tired.
About 4 hours into the day I was just about to give up and try again today.

Contemplating packing up my stuff when I glanced to my left, movement in the brush some 50 yards away.
I turned my attention over there to see yes, it is a a deer stepping out of the shrubs.
Then I noticed it was limping, favoring the left front leg. Then I noticed it was a buck.

I raised my M92 Rossi .454 Casull and waited for him to come around a tree.
He turned the wrong direction, then turned back to duck under a fallen tree, still limping VERY badly. My assumption was that he had been shot in the leg.

He ducked under the fallen tree about 35 yards directly in front of me. When he lifted his nose under the back-side of the fallen tree I put a 300gr jacketed hollow point into his boiler room.

He only went another 5 yards and crashed.

When I stepped up to tag him I found two things.
1) His leg was not shot. His "elbow" if you will, was swollen at least twice it's normal size, but otherwise undamaged. It looked like a recent, but old, break that did not heal properly.
2) I found the most unique rack I've ever harvested. It's not the biggest, but by far the neatest.
It has 6 points total, 4 on one side (including a drop-tine) and 2 on the other, but that's not what made it special.
Both sides of this rack have, for a lack of a better description, "blades" like one would find on an Elk!
One blade is roughly 1 1/2" x 1 1/2" x 1/4" thick. The other is about 2" x 3" x1/4" thick.

I decided to shoot because I thought it was a wounded animal. I didn't want it to wander around suffering.
I was rewarded with a fairly decent size deer that merely had a bad leg, but a really neat rack.