We've all seen our fair share of "I hate thieves" threads, but this experience ratcheted it up a notch for me. I just got back from an 11 day hunting trip that was very successful. I killed a nice 9 point and a doe with my bow in Kentucky. Then we went to Missouri where I killed a doe with my bow and had a really close encounter with a giant buck. Gun season started this past Saturday and that afternoon I shot a pretty nice 8 point with my 7mm Rem Mag. He took off with his left front leg broken, ran down the ridge top for around 50 yards and then turned and ran down into the deep valley. Shortly after I lost sight of him I heard him crash hard. I should have given him more time, but I've seen what my 7mm does to a deer and I'm colorblind, so I climbed down and went to locate him while it was still light. I couldn't see him over the curve of the ridge but I knew where he was so I walked straight to where I heard him crash. Just before I got to where I could see him I heard him take off and crash again within three seconds. I took off my orange hat, hung it on a tree limb, marked it with my GPS, took a compass bearing to where I heard him crash the second time and backed out quietly. I didn't hear him get back up so I knew he would be there when I came back. It was dark when my brother, my nephew and I went back and it had started to sleet and rain. My brother said he couldn't pick up the blood trail, so I went to the tree I'd marked, pointed my compass in the right direction and headed out. I looked all over and found nothing in the wet, dark woods. It was going to get down to 20 degrees so I decided to go back in the next day. The next morning I went back and in the daylight I easily found the skid in the leaves where he crashed the first time. I could also follow the kicked up leaves where he'd staggered when I bumped him and quickly found the second crash site at the bottom of the ridge. There was a lot of blood and......... a cigarette butt and drag marks where he'd been taken. I started to walk the disturbed leaf trail but hadn't taken twenty steps before I saw orange at the top of a ladder stand less than 100 yards ahead. I walked on, waved to let the guy know I saw him and kept walking. This guy asked me if I was looking for one and I answered that I was looking for a buck I shot last night. He answered with "I haven't seen one". At this point I'm convinced that this guy or someone in his group took my buck. I had no idea there was someone there and a hunter in that stand would have been able to see the buck fall the second time. He also would have been able to hear me leave the area so maybe he thought I had given up the search. I don't know. Yeah, I made a mistake that caused this and I learned from it. What I do know is that I was one pissed off hunter, but getting into an argument with someone who is armed with a rifle over a deer just didn't seem worth it. I just don't get it. Stealing a deer someone else shot just seems like the rock-bottom of how low one can sink.
That's frustrating, especially since you just don't know for sure. I've had a similar experience. I walked up to a guy gutting a deer which I believed to be the one I had shot an hour earlier. It was my first ever bow kill, a 7 pointer, and I never got to put a hands on his antlers or eat any of the bounty. The guy never fessed up to it and I was young so I didn't press the issue and walked away.
That sucks ...lesson to be learned here ....especially when gun hunting ...never leave your deer where others are around ...they WILL take it...
Yep. Well, I had no idea there was anyone in the area. Still, it just seems low, you know? I wonder if someone is out there showing off pics of the buck "they killed"?
It blows me away what people will do....My buddy had one stolen AFTER he gutted it and filled out his tag .... lowlife scumbags ...
Man this sucks....just torture. I know someday, hopefully I'm wrong, having to hunt small acres I'll lose one to a neighboring landowner...just pray that day never comes.
I cannot comprehend how another hunter could do something like that... You have to be the lowest of the low of people to even think of doing something like that. Reading that story pisses me off so bad. Unsuccessful hunter steals deer shot by someone else, is quickly caught | Star Tribune
That's terrible. I've never understood wanting somebody else's deer. We need to go back to cutting the hands off of thieves.
Ah Rifle season. Brings out the best of our breed for sure. Why I LOVE bowhunting so much, just seems that bowhunters tend to respect the animal more, respect their fellow hunters more, and respect the lifestyle more. Sorry that happened and especially sorry that happened in my state
Man that stinks.. what honor is in taking someone else's deer... even if it had a really huge rack or whatever.. never understood that..
Someone could have easily seen the whole thing and see you leave and not return thinking you gave up. Didn't want to let it go to waste is what they could have thought. You will never know.
Honestly, I did consider that possibility and you're right, I'll never know. Still, if someone saw the whole thing and assumed I gave up and left it was either the same guy sitting on the stand or someone else in his group that was hunting that stand the afternoon before because there was no one else around. It seems to me that if that were the case and he had a shred of decency he would have said that they found it and that I could come and get it.
Did you read the post earlier in the thread that spear posted? A loser is a loser no matter what weapon.
I agree, but there's a much higher percentage of those people that gun hunt than what bow hunt. You just have to work too hard at bowhunting to be a slob. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk
This happened to me this year. I shot a decent 6-point opening bow weekend in WI. Had a good shot but didn't pass through. Got down after about an hour to check out the blood trail I had and it was good foamy blood that was coming out pretty good. Tracked the blood trail for about 1/4 mile and our property ends and it meets the road so I was worried he had crossed and I'd lose him. Well it was exactly the opposite and right in the ditch was a pool of blood where he had crashed I assumed. After searching around for more blood I looked up onto the road to see drag marks of blood streaking on the edge of the road and blood dripped into nicely circled pools like it had been dripping from the deer while it sat in the bed of a pickup. Needless to say with all the blood I had I searched all over to see if it had doubled back after seeing a car and there wasn't a drop of blood anywhere. My best assumption is someone saw this deer in the ditch and decided they might as well take it. Wasn't happy at all.
