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

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Ugh. That sucks.

I once had an 11pt Whitetail stolen by one of two guys (one of which was a State Trooper) that gave me a ride down the mountain in their truck to get it toward my car (so I wouldn't have to drag it). When I pulled the buck off the back of the truck, I then dragged it under a large pine tree with low branches to hide it while I ran back up the hill to get the rest of my gear.

Hiked back up the hill, grabbed my gear from my stand and hiked back down to the buck. Maybe a total of 20 minutes away from that buck.

Got to the tree and he was G-O-N-E

Dude, if you leave a dead animal in the wilderness, you might as well have left a treasure chest of gold on the ocean floor for safe keeping. Finders-Keepers is what I learned.

Bummer.
JL
 
GotDraw? said:
Ugh. That sucks.

I once had an 11pt Whitetail stolen by one of two guys (one of which was a State Trooper) that gave me a ride down the mountain in their truck to get it toward my car (so I wouldn't have to drag it). When I pulled the buck off the back of the truck, I then dragged it under a large pine tree with low branches to hide it while I ran back up the hill to get the rest of my gear.

Hiked back up the hill, grabbed my gear from my stand and hiked back down to the buck. Maybe a total of 20 minutes away from that buck.

Got to the tree and he was G-O-N-E

Dude, if you leave a dead animal in the wilderness, you might as well have left a treasure chest of gold on the ocean floor for safe keeping. Finders-Keepers is what I learned.

Bummer.
JL
Click to expand...
Damn. Opening my eyes, I did not expect this as a relatively new hunter.
 
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.
 
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This is a wild story. Are you saying that there is an investigation going on to find out what happened / who took it? Was the autopsy part of that investigation?
Is it possible they were acting altruistically? Like they found a fresh dead animal and assumed that the person who killed it had lost it, so they harvested it on their tag? Kinda flimsy. I'm just kinda confused about the sequence. Or, are you assuming that since this happened overnight, they had somehow observed your evening and then waited for you to leave?
Not that you need to be an expert on the legal stuff, but what crime is being investigated? What would be the penalty?
 
I'm now more confused.

- I've never heard of an "autopsy" after a hunter found a harvested deer carcass during hunting season.
- If there was no antlers (assuming), how do you know it was the same deer?
- If you left at dusk, and returned at dawn, do you think someone was out there in the middle of the night harvesting your deer?

OP, please post some more details as I'm sure a lot of people are curious.
 
jlhois said:
Apologize for the lengthy soap box speech on the first post. The consensus is that most just want the facts, which I appreciate…..

  • This was a controlled archery hunt in Idaho.
  • Spent every weekend but one up scouting. Luckily, I found this buck on my first trip and was able to get a fairly good idea of his patterns.
  • Was fortunate to have two friends donate their time, eyes, and expensive optics to help me scout and be with me on opening weekend.
  • We were able to turn the buck up mid-morning on the opener, but he was on the move from his waterhole to his bed. Spent multiple hours glassing different angles to try and find the exact location for a spot and stalk.
  • Made my way up to an ambush point on the hill we had spotted the buck, it was just underneath where he generally came out to feed and just above the line he took that morning. Originally, I wanted to be above his bedding area so I could account for the change in the thermals, but the prevailing wind was not going to allow this.
  • Sat under a tree for two and a half hours waiting for him to come out.
  • He emerged right at 230 yards with just under 3 hours of shooting light left.
  • He grazed in a wide open flat for about 20 minutes and decided to bed right under a very recognizable dead red tree.
  • The prevailing wind had died down and the thermals were starting to swirl. The line he was taking looked to be headed for feeding grounds and not to water, so I opted to leave the ambush spot and make a stalk on him.
  • Left the tree and used it as cover as I backed off to the mountain side and loop all the way around to get on the same level as him. Was able to cut the distance to the dead tree that he had bedded under. When I was able to range the tree at just under 100 yards, I stopped at a boulder patch and started to still hunt.
  • My two buddies were able to spot and film the deer through my entire stalk.
  • I started slowly moving up a boulder patch keeping the wind in my face. After several steps the buck lifted his head and I was able to spot him above me. The buck was feeding and completely unaware of my presence. After he dropped his head, I was able to get a range of 33 yards. I was able to range multiple rocks on the edge of the boulder slide and had a consistent 25-30 yard reading. I knocked an arrow and attached my release to the d-loop to be ready to draw my bow. His vitals were not visible immediately due to the layout of the terrain and the brush. Over a span of 13 minutes, he slowly fed down and around until he was slightly below my position. The buck stepped just behind a large rock that I had ranged earlier at 23 yards. The buck turned broadside and for the first time turned his head away from me, at which point I came to full draw. As I reached my anchor point and settled the pins on his body, he turned full frontal and started feeding towards me with his head down. This did give me time to level my bubble and put my pins level with his vitals to be ready when he presented a shot. After several steps he turned back downhill and presented a quartering shot. Settled pins on the crease behind his front left shoulder. I compensated for the quartering angle by moving the sight pin slightly forward on his shoulder, and I released my arrow.
  • I saw the arrow fletching disappear into his body and heard the shot hit his body. The buck turned and ran for 60-70 yards and then slowed to a walk for another 20 - 30 yards and then came to a complete stop. I was able to visually confirm blood at the exit wound on the buck’s right side.
  • Both friends below confirmed they saw the deer get hit and the same behavior I witnessed.
  • Buck was taking very slow steps with intermittent stops with his head down and looking very sick. It took 6 minutes for him to slowly walk over the saddle out of eyesight.
  • After the buck moved out of sight I waited to listen carefully for crashing or any other activity. Then I moved forward slowly, retrieved my arrow, and marked the location with my GPS. The arrow verified bright red blood on fletching but with some evidence of gut on the shaft.
  • The angle of the quartering shot and visual evidence of blood at the exit determined it was most likely a single lung hit with exit slightly further back. Lack of consistent blood on the ground was concerning. Worked my way back to the shot location and then decided that it was best to not continue to push forward. I had spent a lot of time in the preseason glassing the backside of the same mountain where the buck bedded. Which is precisely where the buck was headed after I shot him. Believed that if pushed too hard he would disappear into the heavy timber/brush. While confident the shot was lethal, I was worried it was single lung, not double. I made the extremely difficult decision to back out and return at first light with my two friends to assist in the search. Never heard the buck crash, never saw signs of any other hunter, never heard another bow shoot an arrow. I took a photo of the buck’s last position past legal shooting light.
  • Returned before first light the next morning. Found the harvested carcass just past from where I last saw the buck.
  • IDFG autopsy that was completed that same day confirmed that my arrow was in fact as I described. Hit a single lung, liver, and guts.
  • The rest of the story is tied up in an open investigation.
Click to expand...
Any leads - dude you can't post stuff like this abd just leave us hanging / I'm guessing you are hoping someone on here or in Idaho muleys Facebook will notice the rack???
 
In many places (not sure about Idaho) it's illegal to take possession of an animal (or meat, hide, and antlers) that you did not kill unless you have a salvage tag. Taking someone's unrecovered, legal kill falls into this category.

It seems like common sense, but the number of people this happens to is surprisingly high. I've had friends who have had deer die after crossing a property line and then had the landowner "claim" the deer and forbid access for recovery. Followed by a call to the game warden, a short investigation (followed blood from the shot to where the deer died) and a ticket to the land owner and confiscation of the deer.
 
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To play devil's advocate, If I were on the other side of that ridge and a wounded deer walked over the ridge with no one in sight I would probably try and get an arrow in. If no one followed up and I could not find any sign of a hunter on the other side I would tag it. I've never done something like that, but i have let one go thinking someone would be hot on the trail only to find out that they never got back on the deer and lost it.
 
This makes me feel sick just reading it. Can’t imagine how the OP is feeling. Hope you are able to figure out what happened and get your buck back.
 
Public ground is any man’s game unfortunately! Sorry to hear about the buck but sounds like you weren’t the only hunters after Mr Big in daylight hours.
 
I think a lot of guys would try to kill a wounded deer if they had the chance. In that situation you would be the one killing the animal, and in so doing you would be eligible to tag it legally (to the best of my knowledge). Presumably, (since there was an investigation) the op killed the deer and someone else took the head, the cape and the meat.
 
Synopsis of the story:
Guy 1 sticks an incredible buck with a sub par shot. Guy 1 and his entourage lose sight of him and decide to come back the next day.
Guy 2 kills said buck on the top of the ridge. Quarters and packs him out by daybreak.
Guy 1 has to get the word out that this was an illegitimate kill prior to said buck showing up at all of the horn contests at the sportsman shows this spring.
 
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