Ethics in hunting, the story of my once in a lifetime Buck....

[Maverick1]

Think the OP waited 164 days to post this, just to wait for the off-season when the thread would get more traffic? Surely, posting this in August, when the alleged “caper” (see what I did there?) took place would have generated far less of an audience as most of us were likely afield.

Hope mother is still doing well.

 

[Wrench]

It takes time to get the forensics back from NASA.....and getting a FISA warrant, organizing a special councel investigation.....

This shit doesn't happen overnight like it does on TV.

Get a clue.

 

[Mtnboy]

All I have to add is that if IDF&G truly spent the time and resources to DNA test etc. etc. that seems like a HUGE waste of resources.

 

[Maverick1]

It takes time to get the forensics back from NASA.....and getting a FISA warrant, organizing a special councel investigation.....

This shit doesn't happen overnight like it does on TV.

Get a clue.

Takes less time to get a form 1 approved!

 

[Rob5589]

 

[GSPHUNTER]

View attachment 373615

" YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH"

 

[butcherboy]

There is a lot that doesn’t add up and every time the OP adds more to the story it just gets even more confusing. His buddies sat on it and watched the area till after dark? Shooter stayed till legal shooting light was gone. Went back first thing in the morning and someone else got their first? So, someone else either shot it and stayed after dark to cape and take some meat or watched this whole thing happened and went in after they left. My money is on the first scenario. I’ll bet the other hunter took hind legs, backstrap, front shoulders and left the rest.

 

[hh76]

How close to a road was this?

I wonder if someone was watching, or they overheard some hunters bragging about their buck of a lifetime?

 

[Carr5vols]

Found your deer. Sayer's got it.

 

[Extrapale]

You can get a replacement tag if someone takes a deer you killed?

Should not need a replacement tag unless he cut it before ever recovering deer.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

[Extrapale]

Sounds similar to what happened to me in Colorado in 2019. People are dirt bags, that’s a fact.

“More to let people know what the real world is like out there in the world of OTC archery hunting in Colorado.

On the last morning of my hunt I was able to sneak in on a really big herd bull and his cows up in a rock slide.

Unfortunately, things fell apart and the herd busted and the bull circled underneath me and came right up the side of the rock-slide I was in. I settled the pin behind his shoulder and touched the release at 25 yards and I somehow made a bad gut shot (1/3 way up the elk 1/2 way between the hams and the back of the front shoulder) at close range on a very nice bull (6X6 or a 7X7) I have no idea in the world how I hit where I did. I dont know if I caught a strap on my pack or what happened. It all happened so quick and I was in shock where the arrow hit. Literally I have replayed it 6000 times in my head and I dont understand how it happened.

He was mine...finally at 25 yards after all the miles traveled..and trips taken.....I was calm, settled the pin and had a smooth release....and zing...right in the damn guts...The bull started trotting up the mountain in the wide open.

Realizing what had happened I quickly ran up the slide and I followed up with a poor shoulder shot at 60 yards in the blowing winds.

6" to the left and he would be mine. In hindsight I should have held mid-body and tried to just get another arrow into the center mass of the elk for the sake of just getting another arrow into something that would kill him. But I held lungs and the arrow just got taken the the right by the brutal gusting winds right into the shoulder.

I then sat there and watched the bull walk across a rock slide with guts hanging out the hole in his one side and go into a patch of timber where I felt he would bed down.

Upon leaving the slide I felt confident that if I was able to leave him overnight I would be able to recover him in the morning. I wasn't happy about the shots but with time he would definitely die.

When I left the slide I ran into a Resident hunter and spoke to him for about 15 minuted about the situation. We even exchanged cell phone numbers.

I asked him what his plans where for the day and he said that he had intended to go up into the area where my bull had just laid down. I told him the story about what had just happened and I repeatedly requested that he not go up into the area because I didn't want to bump the bull from the slide area because I knew we would be getting some rain that afternoon. Sneaking up on the bull in the position he was in would be almost impossible and I didn't want to chance it so I decided against that.

The guy agreed that he would circle low and go WAY out around to avoid bumping the bull. So I thanked him many times and we parted company. I then left the slide and so did he.

Sure enough, we got an inch of rain that afternoon/evening.

I went back in the next morning and saw fresh man tracts had been up the trail heading to where the bull had bedded. We walked up to where the bull had entered the timber and there was no blood just a bed where he had laid down and some bile in the bed. I recovered both my arrows and they were clean. I then spent the day on a 45 degree slope and many miles covering that timber patch and a huge surrounding radius of the area. I tracked my every track with my GPS and I looked everywhere. Later that day I found two little pieces of meat where the bull had entered the trees (And I mean little) . I personally put at least 10 miles on looking for the bull and my friend out the same amount of effort in before throwing in the towel. We just could not figure out what had happened. Where could he have possibly gone? He was so freaking sick and just wanted to bed down....

We headed back to camp.

Later that evening, the same guy strolled into my camp and asked me how things were going. I told him not good that I was not able to find my bull and that I could believe that he had went out of that timber patch and that I had looked everywhere for him.

Then the guy tells me that " Oh we were up there yesterday after you left and we found blood in the rock slide above where you said he went into that timber patch"

I didn't even know what to say...

He then went on to tell me how "he had shot at a bull up there after he had left us and had missed it with his bow"

I said "I though I asked you to stay clear of that slide because I had gutted that bull up there and I didn't want to push him?!"

He said that they had "gone around well below the bull but his other buddy was up there anyways"

I just looked at him, still not even knowing what to say....

Trying to get any form of closure, I then asked him if he had followed the blood and shot at an elk or if he had called in a different bull and he hesitated and then he had told me that they had "just seen a bull walking through the timber and he shot over it"

I was floored. Not really knowing what to think of the situation.

One of the nicest bulls I have ever seen on public land. And he got bumped by another hunter who couldn't respect my wishes and now he is gone forever.

Makes me freaking sick.

Things I have accepted form this hunt:

# 1 - I made a poor shot and this is on ME not the other hunter.
#2 - I made a poor followup shot and this is on ME not the other hunter.
#3 - No matter where you are at there are people and you will NOT be able to control or persuade them to not be knuckleheads.
#4 - Public land is public land. People are going to do whatever they want whenever they want.

If anyone hears of anyone finding a 300+" 6X6 or 7X7 in the Colorado Flattops this season please let me know.

If anyone wonders, Yes, I punched my tag and did not go after another bull.

In 23 years of bow hunting this is the first animal I have mortally wounded and never recovered. It truly makes me want to throw up.

Sad ending but thats my elk story for 2019 and thats a wrap folks.”

So ya, your story doesn’t surprise me. Not 1 bit.

You shot a bull in the morning and figured the best thing to do was return the next day to recover it?

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[woods89]

Found your deer. Sayer's got it. View attachment 373637

Was it a gunfight?

 

[87TT]

Well, that's 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back! Some funny stuff (memes) but the story is just hearsay and fishy as a dead salmon.

 

[Carpenterant]

I’m confused on why they waited until dark then went in at dark the next day. I would assume looking in dark is the same

 

[bojangles808]

 

[Azone]

Just envisioning Mr. Rate and Bob Lee Swager talking in Shooter. Instead it’s possibly a Idaho game warden and jlhois, trying to piece it all together. I wouldn’t be surprised if any other deer or deer hunters that were present that day were killed to cover it all up, since that’s how a conspiracy works.

 

[Rob5589]

In all seriousness, if there were buck thieves involved, why not take the entire animal elsewhere to cut it up? Why leave evidence behind? If the thieves saw the buck go down, it seems reasonable to expect the shooter to show up to recover the deer at some time.

 

[Bighorner]

Most people will never understand the emotional destruction that comes with having a magnificent specimen stolen from out from under you. This hunters courage to come forward with most of his half of the story has given me the courage to share most of mine. I had been afraid to come forward because of the shame until today.

It was a hot august day in 1973 on a limited entry lake and I was fishing for keeper perch. I left my bail open as I reached for another Busch latte. When I got back to my rod there was a gigantic tug. At first I thought I had snagged a scuba diver, but this was much bigger. I yelled to by 2 buddies who where there to get the net. Alas they had spent so much on the boat they couldn't afford a net. As I got the largest walleye I had ever seen along side, Egard reached in to bare hand him into the boat. The walleye hit the gunnel, flipped twice and back into the drink. I vowed to return the next morning or atleast later in the week to claim my prize.

Well it wasn't three days later I see a picture of some dude holding up my fish on the on the front page of the paper. I ordered an immediate investigation which confirmed the lip meat from my hook was an exact 50 percent match with the fish from the paper. Well before I could get my confront the guy, this dude leaves the county to go back to his dentist practice in Upstate New York. To say I was crushed is to put to put it mildly. That 5 1/2 pound walleye slipped right out of my life.

 

[PRC_GUY]

it is life time confuse for me, I shoot, I will finish harvesting it, I don't wait for next day!

 

[WeiserBucks]

it is life time confuse for me, I shoot, I will finish harvesting it, I don't wait for next day!

You have to wait until the next day, all the guys on TV and IG say its the way to go!