Keep hunting?

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

So if your bird hunting and you shoot see a few feathers fly off but don’t find the bird does that count against your limit?

Yep. No different that if a POS coyote runs up and grabs my dove, quail, duck, and/or goose before I can.

On a related note, one year a coyote actually did learn to raid a waterfowl hunting area and grab all that fell on the ground. It was funny but also pissed me the hell off.

 

[Huntindog45]

Yes

the legal answer is no ...in all states that i know of. it is a bag limit.. animals that have been reduced to being in your possession is usually how that is defined in the regulations . Generally the definition of a bag limit is pretty specific about that. i realize there may be different definitions in other states.
I do think much of this comes from the crazy (or arrogant) idea that any game animal not taken home and eaten or put in a freezer is somehow "wasted" those wounded animals likely get consumed more entirely than if we take them home as part of our bag limit.

 

[DakotaBPNW]

the legal answer is no ...in all states that i know of. it is a bag limit.. animals that have been reduced to being in your possession is usually how that is defined in the regulations . Generally the definition a bag limit is pretty specific about that. i realize there may be different definitions in other states.
I do think much of this comes from the crazy (or arrogant) idea that any game animal not taken home and eaten or put in a freezer is somehow "wasted" those wounded animals likely get consumed more entirely than if we take them home as part of our bag limit.

That’s fine, but this discussion isn’t really one of legalities.

 

[Huntindog45]

That’s fine, but this discussion isn’t really one of legalities.

yah i actually quoted the wrong message. the message i meant to respond to was when he was asking about seeing "feathers fly" and specifically asked if it counted toward your limit.

 

[CayenneHunter]

This is how I am too. What sparked the question is I was recently hunting with a buddy who shot a moose, hit it 3 times. We blood tracked it for 9 hours (3 the first evening after the shot, and 6 the next day). It was struggling, bedding down every 100 yards. After the first 3 hours my buddy was like, that sucks lets keep hunting. It sparked a debate and resulted in a return trip to try and recover the moose the next day. He proceeded to hunt and shot another moose. It bothered me, but after seeing this thread, it seems several people share his viewpoint and I am in the minority.

He'd never hunt with me again. I had a similar occurrence with a guy who I helped track his animal. Whitetail, but got to it and just cut the straps off and was leaving the rest. It was gutshot, so he said the meat was ruined. I went back with my bike and recovered the rest. Never raised a finger to help him ever again.

Making a mistake is one thing, consciously abandoning an animal is something else entirely.

 

[KurtR]

Yep. No different that if a POS coyote runs up and grabs my dove, quail, duck, and/or goose before I can.

On a related note, one year a coyote actually did learn to raid a waterfowl hunting area and grab all that fell on the ground. It was funny but also pissed me the hell off.

I would just shoot the coyote problem solved. How in any way should that count against your limit. If a coyote or eagle or what ever takes the bird it’s not in your possession. It’s not want and waste as the predator is eating it. I like eating stuff to much to just quit if I’m still legally in my rights.

 

[CorbLand]

I love these discussions. They are always entertaining.

If I have done everything in my power to find said animal and I cannot find it, I will keep hunting. I have never had to be in this situation minus birds.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

I would just shoot the coyote problem solved. How in any way should that count against your limit. If a coyote or eagle or what ever takes the bird it’s not in your possession. It’s not want and waste as the predator is eating it. I like eating stuff to much to just quit if I’m still legally in my rights.

If there were thousands of duck a day coming in, I may feel different as "feeding the coyote" one has less of an impact. But when you may see 20 or so total duck a day in the desert, that's a 5% hit due to "feeding the coyote" (for each duck the bastard gets). That coyote only got them due to me. If everyone did that every day here, then the numbers would drop a lot at least where you can hunt them.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

Yeah, that would of pissed me off royally and I would of verbally spit in that asshole's face for shooting two bull moose. What a jerkoff.

His comment was I have invested way to much money in this hunt to go home empty handed….

I am also wondering if the type of game was specified , it would yield different answers on this thread. If I would have specified a moose in my original question, I wonder if answers would be the same? Lots of guys are thinking whitetails in areas where they can shoot 10-12 a year.

The “Keep Hunting” mentality seems like a slippery slope. I can see guys walking up on animals smaller than they thought, like a black bear, and pretending they didnt recover it so they could keep hunting bigger animals.

 

[Customweld]

His comment was I have invested way to much money in this hunt to go home empty handed….

I am also wondering if the type of game was specified , it would yield different answers on this thread. If I would have specified a moose in my original question, I wonder if answers would be the same? Lots of guys are thinking whitetails in areas where they can shoot 10-12 a year.

The “Keep Hunting” mentality seems like a slippery slope. I can see guys walking up on animals smaller than they thought, like a black bear, and pretending they didnt recover it so they could keep hunting bigger animals.

I would like to believe that doesn't happen, but I think we are naive to think it doesn't .

 

[JustSomeGuy35]

His comment was I have invested way to much money in this hunt to go home empty handed….

I am also wondering if the type of game was specified , it would yield different answers on this thread. If I would have specified a moose in my original question, I wonder if answers would be the same? Lots of guys are thinking whitetails in areas where they can shoot 10-12 a year.

The “Keep Hunting” mentality seems like a slippery slope. I can see guys walking up on animals smaller than they thought, like a black bear, and pretending they didnt recover it so they could keep hunting bigger animals.

The situation you posed is pretty extreme compared to what I envisioned. 3 shots, lots of blood, and only a few hours spent tracking? Thats f**ked up.

Some of these guys on here are responding as if the "keep hunting" mentality means we're just blasting away and if it don't drop in place, we go shoot another. I don't think anyone has said they do that so I don't know why some of y'all are taking it that way.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

The situation you posed is pretty extreme compared to what I envisioned. 3 shots, lots of blood, and only a few hours spent tracking? Thats f**ked up.

Some of these guys on here are responding as if the "keep hunting" mentality means we're just blasting away and if it don't drop in place, we go shoot another. I don't think anyone has said they do that so I don't know why some of y'all are taking it that way.

It takes less than 2 seconds to type "after a thorough search". Folks should hit the gym more if they get winded typing a few letters.

 

[ScreamingPotato]

This is how I am too. What sparked the question is I was recently hunting with a buddy who shot a moose, hit it 3 times. We blood tracked it for 9 hours (3 the first evening after the shot, and 6 the next day). It was struggling, bedding down every 100 yards. After the first 3 hours my buddy was like, that sucks lets keep hunting. It sparked a debate and resulted in a return trip to try and recover the moose the next day. He proceeded to hunt and shot another moose. It bothered me, but after seeing this thread, it seems several people share his viewpoint and I am in the minority.

In this particular scenario after exhausting the search I'm switching to hunting that specific animal, no way I'm shooting another one. I've been in that situation before and hunted the same Aoudad that had my arrow sticking out of it for almost a week even though the blood eventually went over a fence to private land, even called in a couple more days off work. For me if I think it's an eventually fatal wound I'll do everything I can to put that animal on the ground sooner rather than later and completely ignore other animals until I have to leave to go back home.

 

[bigsky2]

I’m what most people would consider a trophy hunter. If I feel the animal was mortally or badly wounded, I quit hunting. Big bucks and bulls are rare enough as it is, I don’t need to be killing more than one of them in a season.

 

[KurtR]

If there were thousands of duck a day coming in, I may feel different as "feeding the coyote" one has less of an impact. But when you may see 20 or so total duck a day in the desert, that's a 5% hit due to "feeding the coyote" (for each duck the bastard gets). That coyote only got them due to me. If everyone did that every day here, then the numbers would drop a lot at least where you can hunt them.

You should probably not hunt ducks there any way if that’s all there are. I saw 2000 before shooting hours on Saturday and was expecting more. How do you let a duck lay long enough for a coyote to get? Shouldn’t be any farther than a 20 yard shot over decoys other wise kinda unethical

 

[william schmaltz]

This is how I am too. What sparked the question is I was recently hunting with a buddy who shot a moose, hit it 3 times. We blood tracked it for 9 hours (3 the first evening after the shot, and 6 the next day). It was struggling, bedding down every 100 yards. After the first 3 hours my buddy was like, that sucks lets keep hunting. It sparked a debate and resulted in a return trip to try and recover the moose the next day. He proceeded to hunt and shot another moose. It bothered me, but after seeing this thread, it seems several people share his viewpoint and I am in the minority.

In this case, where I think we can all agree the bull died, I would stop hunting. I think the must-be-guided rule in AK is mostly stupid, but I think the "I have way too much invested in this mentality" is where I can get behind requiring a guide to be there to babysit and preventing people with this mentality from killing two animals. I know of a guy that did something similar. They found the bull 3 days later after another bull was shot. They got wanton waste tickets and were required to butcher and pack the rotten bull out of the field. Don't remember if they got to keep the second bull or not.

I can relate in two instances. The first was a whitetail that I messed up and got in the front shank. He was obviously fine and I kept hunting. I saw him a week later and never did fill that tag. The other time was my first mountain goat. He was able to get to the cliffs and bail after the shot. I never saw him die, but he more than likely did. I walked off the mountain the next morning and considered my tag filled. Tough pill to swallow there. At the time, I thought it would be the only opportunity in my life to hunt goats.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

You should probably not hunt ducks there any way if that’s all there are. I saw 2000 before shooting hours on Saturday and was expecting more. How do you let a duck lay long enough for a coyote to get? Shouldn’t be any farther than a 20 yard shot over decoys other wise kinda unethical

Where in AZ are you seeing 2000+ ducks before shooting hours where you can legally hunt? I personally have no idea how many urban golf courses I'd need to hit in a day to see that many.

But to answer your question...
Shoot duck (sometimes with decoys and sometimes without), it drops and injuredly (not a word but gives you the idea) swims to opposite shoreline (not that far). Hidden coyote jumps out of the vegetation, snags the duck, and takes off. Total time is a few seconds. I'm a mere mortal so I need more time than that; not a problem with Rokslide elite to have the duck in hand in a few seconds 100% of the time.

If you think shooting 21 yards and/or hunting in low volume areas is unethical, you'll poop your pants hunting waterfowl on stock tanks.

 

[JustSomeGuy35]

It takes less than 2 seconds to type "after a thorough search". Folks should hit the gym more if they get winded typing a few letters.

Brilliant. If you need something that basic spelled out for you, maybe you should exercise your brain.

Movin' on....

 

[svivian]

Question For the guys who keep hunting... how many animals before you punch the tag or do you just keep going until one is in your hands?

I worked at a hunting retail store.... ive had several come in who shot 3 or more and never recovered. That is why I choose to punch my tag on the first un recovered animal.

Still waiting on an answer on this one. This is a very legitimate question I have

Edit: im not looking for a right or wrong answer, purely curious as this is a very individual and situational based question.

 

[JustSomeGuy35]

Still waiting on an answer on this one. This is a very legitimate question I have

I can't really answer that question because I've only lost 2 animals in 19 years. One elk a long time ago and a small buck last year. **AFTER CONDUCTING A THOROUGH SEARCH**, I kept hunting in both situations but didn't get another elk that year. Didn't get another buck last year either but did get a doe.

I don't know what I'd do if I wounded and lost 2 elk in a season. I'd definitely keep hunting if it was deer though and probably black bear too.