ethics question: taking someone else's spooked animal

[grizz41]

Put yourself in the shoes of the guy doing the "calling". If the dude is trying to learn what and what not to do in the woods, there's nothing like gunfire that is not his own to teach him the lesson quickly. If he's smart, he'll wise up and learn. If he's not, he'll offer himself up as the definition of insanity.

Now personally, in the situation where a hunter's badly shot deer comes by and you smack it down, I say legally, the deer belongs to the guy that put it down, but the gentlemanly thing to do is to surrender it to the guy who shot first depending on his attitude. If he's humble he gets the deer. If he's a jerk about it, he can pound sand.
Thats the way I see it.

Iwould do the same unless game was very scarce, then I might offer to split the critter so everyone has something to chew on!

[skeettx]

It is called Hunting and not Getting
The other fella was Hunting and you should be the one to be Getting
SHOOT
Mike

[Ballistics in Scotland]

[QUOTE=goodsteel;3448048]Now personally, in the situation where a hunter's badly shot deer comes by and you smack it down, I say legally, the deer belongs to the guy that put it down, but the gentlemanly thing to do is to surrender it to the guy who shot first depending on his attitude. If he's humble he gets the deer. QUOTE]

That is the right thing to do, and the right thing for him to do is let you keep it. If his attitude is right, having the deer escape to die slowly, or recover seriously crippled and a living gift to the antis, would be a lot worse than having to go off and look for another.

[SPRINGFIELDM141972]

I would take the deer. He is not going to get the shot anyway. I see nothing to question in this situation.

[BwBrown]

Even in a case where the other hunter has taken a shot, missed, or had a poorly placed shot. His/her ineptness, or whatever, they lost out. It's part of learning to be a better hunter.

If hunter no. 1 shoots a deer and it runs 70yds and goes down... no question.

Rule of thumb around here... the hunter who kills the game takes it home.

[Cornbread]

Take the shot. When I lived in Oregon many years ago I found the best way to turkey hunt there was to go sit on an exit route for the birds on a weekend and not make a sound. Every novice caller and his brother would be out scaring the daylights out of the turkeys with gobbles that sounded like a car with a flat going down the road to what I assume were supposed to be putts that sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard. Eventually a turkey or twenty would come running by scared out of their minds and I would get my bird. It worked with deer there too if you knew what you were doing and where the roads hunters spooked them to. No harm in making good on other hunters pushing stuff your way through their ineptitude.

[Win94ae]

Shoot!

[gtgeorge]

I don't see an ethics question really as the deer is in your shooting zone not to mentioned spooked by the other hunter. I am one that sometimes might be that guy making all that racket that has produced many harvests but I am sure has spooked even more. Hearing a shot close by is only a concern that it is "close by".

[tim338]

I have shot a few deer from noisy neighbors sent my way. I see no issue with it.

[44man]

I say legally, the deer belongs to the guy that put it down, but the gentlemanly thing to do is to surrender it to the guy who shot first depending on his attitude. If he's humble he gets the deer. If he's a jerk about it, he can pound sand.
Thats the way I see it.
Hard to agree but YES, if he nicked a leg and got out of sorts. Hunters should be friends and understand if you make a poor hit and someone else gets it. But a good hit from the first shot will go to the man that did it. Every case is different but to me a deer is never worth a confrontation.
I had the same when archery hunting with a "Friend" in Ohio. He shot an arrow and skinned a leg. The deer came to my stand and I killed it. He got out of sorts. Sorry, he did no damage, the deer was mine.
Today I have better friends. Greed is always green. Greed has no place in the field. There are times you need to help to stop a deer to prevent a loss. That does not mean it belongs to you.
Your life and feelings about your actions make you a hunter. How do you feel about yourself?

[Victor N TN]

I've been on both sides of the fence with this problem. The guy who put down the deer I crippled, didn't even offer me a mess of meat. Even though if he had left it alone it would have died shortly anyway.

The one I finished off was shot in the front foreleg. The bottom part of his front leg was just dangling. I did give him that front shoulder. Mainly I felt bad for the deer. I hope that kid learned to place his shot better in later years.

I say, you finished the dear, it's your meat.

[44man]

Different, you had no kill shot. A deer with a bad hit to cripple should go to the hunter that shot it.
My feelings are the deer did not suffer long.
If you think a deer with a broken leg is yours, find it. Deer can do well with 3 legs. I know darn well if I break a leg and another hunter shoots it, it is not my deer. I have a relief that my bad hit did not make a deer suffer. Ethics beats greed every time.
I feel so good about myself and the love and friends I have earned by being a sportsman first.
When the green monster is on your shoulder you should not be in the woods.

[MT Gianni]

I say legally, the deer belongs to the guy that put it down, but the gentlemanly thing to do is to surrender it to the guy who shot first depending on his attitude. If he's humble he gets the deer. If he's a jerk about it, he can pound sand.
Thats the way I see it.
Hard to agree but YES, if he nicked a leg and got out of sorts. Hunters should be friends and understand if you make a poor hit and someone else gets it. But a good hit from the first shot will go to the man that did it. Every case is different but to me a deer is never worth a confrontation.
I had the same when archery hunting with a "Friend" in Ohio. He shot an arrow and skinned a leg. The deer came to my stand and I killed it. He got out of sorts. Sorry, he did no damage, the deer was mine.
Today I have better friends. Greed is always green. Greed has no place in the field. There are times you need to help to stop a deer to prevent a loss. That does not mean it belongs to you.
Your life and feelings about your actions make you a hunter. How do you feel about yourself?

In the original scenario the caller that spooked the deer had not taken a shot, nor had anyone with him.

[44man]

In the original scenario the caller that spooked the deer had not taken a shot, nor had anyone with him.

True, they have no claim. Deer do not know borders or fences.
I feed my deer in the yard, mulberries, pears and apples, then some corn. I don't hunt them and do worry about them but they are not MINE. I have no control if they are next door and get shot.
Yet if a hunter makes a good hit and it comes on my property, you better find it and you do not have to ask me. We have a deal here, get your deer and ask for help if needed.
I don't let many hunt my woods but if I catch you looking for a deer, I will help you and haul it out for you. To stop at my fence would be a crime if you are tracking.
Deer on my property do not belong to me and when they leave. they are fair game.

[waksupi]

If a deer runs by, there is nothing to say it was the same deer the other guy was hunting, or if he even knew it was in the area. Lots of deer out there. If I saw a wounded one going by, I would kill it if possible, because I don't like to see an animal suffer. The majority of hunters are miserable trackers, and it may take them hours to find a wounded animal, if they find it at all.

[Yodogsandman]

What if what you heard was a real buck fight and not poor calling by another hunter. Wild animals call badly because they've never seen the videos. Shoot it, it's yours to shoot, ethically either way.

[birddog]

Tim,
I agree to some extent. I have shot 7 deer that were previously shot and some not by guys in our party. I have always let them have their deer and there were 2 that were very nice wall hangers. But I don't care for boiled antler soup, generally pretty bland. I prefer to slip in and dump them in their beds. No one knows what happened.
Charlie

[Boyscout]

I have blown a number of sure things hunting. I don't know if someone had an opportunity to kill them afterwards or not. If they did, congratulations. On shooting previously wounded game, I think my rule would be first killing shot. A deer with two fatal wounds should go to the first hunter. I have seen heart shot deer travel some pretty impressive distances and they were dead on their feet.

[Motor]

What a weird question. Most of the deer we take with firearms are moving or driven, if you will, either by us or some other hunters.

Some people get upset if you end up benefiting from their drive. I'm proud to say that the people I hunt with are not like that. In fact if someone comes along as we're setting up a drive we'll invite them to participate.

Motor

[Mark454]

I was in a pretty tense situation once over this very issue. So intense that I thought i was going to get shot by some hillbilly.

So, I'm of the persuasion that if that animal, of its God-given free will, walks in front of you then you have the right to take that animal. Regardless of who/what influenced it to do such.

Anybody who would flip out and call a living deer "Theirs", should have kept their pet inside during hunting season. Nothing belongs to anybody until you properly harvest that animal.

If a lung/heartshot animal walks in front of me, I have no beef dropping it, but it belongs to the person who initially shot it. If the deer is just wounded, then the initial shooter needs to go home because nothing belongs to them.

Alright, I'm climbing down from my soapbox...