MuleyFever
WKR
I was just hunting in CO for mule deer with my muzzleloader. Got to the basin Friday and set up my camp to start hunting Saturday. Come Monday this group of 3 deer that I have been watching since Saturday are heading down the ridge so I go to intercept them. One buck looks like a shooter. About this time a hunter comes up over the rim and starts watching me and the deer. I get close enough to the deer to take a shot but don't because I am still unsure on size, they go into a strip of brush but me being on the ground I can't tell where they go. The hunter up on the rim sees it all and knows where the deer went. I head up to my camp from where I can glass the area the deer went but not the farther side as it slopes away from me. I need to move over to another knob about 400 yards from my camp. It starts raining so I sit in my tent for a short time until it stops. I get out and the hunter has now moved down to where I needed to be to glass up the area the buck went. I decide to just go down to the area and try to turn up the buck but cannot so head back up to camp. The other hunter who was able to see the buck then goes in and kills it. I was up at my tent when I heard a shot. It was so dark I figured he was just shooting of the round because of the rain. I ended up seeing them cleaning the deer the next morning and asked about the shot. He said it was a close shot and he could see the silhouette of the deer so he shot and left it overnight because it was too dark to track it.
I am not upset about the deer as I went and looked at it and it was a nice buck but not what I wanted. However, I question the ethics of the other hunter. Should he have talked to me about it? He could see I was hunting the deer. He walked right past my tent to kill this deer. I feel like in the other guys shoes I would have approached the hunter I watched and asked if he was hoping to kill the deer and if so shown him its location and went to find another deer.
What do you think?
To add to this story they also were not wearing orange, trying to hide, and when I went to where they were cleaning the deer I saw a whole front quarter laying in the weeds. I think the top part was a bit shot but it looked like a lot of good meat. Maybe just those things with their behavior is rubbing me the wrong way.
I am not upset about the deer as I went and looked at it and it was a nice buck but not what I wanted. However, I question the ethics of the other hunter. Should he have talked to me about it? He could see I was hunting the deer. He walked right past my tent to kill this deer. I feel like in the other guys shoes I would have approached the hunter I watched and asked if he was hoping to kill the deer and if so shown him its location and went to find another deer.
What do you think?
To add to this story they also were not wearing orange, trying to hide, and when I went to where they were cleaning the deer I saw a whole front quarter laying in the weeds. I think the top part was a bit shot but it looked like a lot of good meat. Maybe just those things with their behavior is rubbing me the wrong way.