Deer hunting ethics

[antlerridge]

You seemed to do more than most would to attempt recovery, hunt.


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[Q_Sertorius]

We are pretty sure the buck is alive, we had a trail cam photo and it appears to be him. Continued to hunt today, but the soup is luke warm.

I’d keep hunting him. The odds that he survives the winter is pretty low. I’ve tracked deer a surprising distance - 1/2 mile or more - even after “good shots” like a high lung shot that doesn’t affect the spine. I believe in exhausting all reasonable measures to recover a wounded animal.

I am not saying this applies here, but I have also seen some really poor attempts to even look for blood by some hunters. “No blood within 6-feet of where I think he was when I fired. I must have missed.” My dad’s rule was that if we shot at a deer we walked a search pattern in the direction he ran out to 400 yards with increasingly longer legs. It took forever on the side of the mountain, beating brush, climbing over dead trees, etc. Which basically meant you were done hunting for the day unless you found him. Do that once or twice and you take shots you know you can hit.

 

[Timplant]

wound loss is factored into tags sold, if you gave your effort, go hunting.

 

[Model70]

Keep hunting. You did everything right, but to no avail, so ethically, you are good to go in my book.
I hate crippling a deer and not recovering it, but it happens. Fortunately, I have not had the misfortune of crippling one in many years. Eats my guts out.

 

[mad_angler]

This thread is sorta confusing.... folks keep asking about the shot, the weapon, etc.

It seems that the question is much less complicated: "Do you stop hunting if you wound a deer?"

I know most guides consider the hunt to be over once blood is drawn. I think that is self serving to force their clients to take better shots and to maintain their personal herd of animals.

I think it is a personal, judgement call.
My personal, judgement call is to keep hunting...

 

[velvet muley]

Keep hunting, shit happens. They factor all that into tag numbers.

 

[Swamp Fox]

Keep hunting, shit happens. They factor all that into tag numbers.

'Keep shootin' ..... They'll make more.'

 

[Rich M]

This thread is sorta confusing.... folks keep asking about the shot, the weapon, etc.

It seems that the question is much less complicated: "Do you stop hunting if you wound a deer?"

I know most guides consider the hunt to be over once blood is drawn. I think that is self serving to force their clients to take better shots and to maintain their personal herd of animals.

I think it is a personal, judgement call.
My personal, judgement call is to keep hunting...

Some folks just keep wounding critters and continue to hunt and do it again and again.

Yes - the guides arent into killing say 4 animals to retrieve 1. Go prepared and be embarassed if you miss. Feel like crap if you hit and lose an animal.

 

[Charlie-NY]

You went the extra mile which a lot of hunters wouldn't have. A tag is used to place on an animal that is reduced to your possession. That didn't happen. Go hunt and enjoy the remainer of the season.

I don't really think that what a guide/outfitter thinks is a good guide for everyone. This year, a whitetail guide stated that they have a new rule - if you "mortally hit" an unrecovered deer, you forfeit your tag. Well, if it's unrecovered; how can you say that it was mortally hit? Besides, we we're hunting whitetails which are plentiful, not elephants. It makes a difference.