How many of you have found this?

[redfrog]

I have been hunting really hard this last week for elk. ITs been really fun. i have seen many large bulls ( im is spike only unit) and many cows but some other bow hunter keep pushing the animals to early in the morning. I can hanlde that. the mountain belogs to every one. But what i can't handle is what i saw this hunter do and what i found later. Saw this hunter on opening week end shot at a cow elk that was standing at 80 yrds plus. Talking with him later he said he did not find his arrow or blood. i asked him how long he looked for. He said a few minutes. Saw this same hunter this last week end. He started this hunt with 5 arrow. Monday he was down to 2. No elk taged does not know if he hit anything or not says he never found his arrow or blood. Fine I just tried to let it go. I thought some one who does not now how to bow hunt. Maybe its his firt time. But then monday night i found a dead deer. a alright sized buck DEAD stinky and munched on by predators. MY guess is it was shot opening week end of the deer hunt And this person was road hunting or sitting on the near by water hole. And they must have been really lazy because there was a blood trail. even with the little bit of rain we have had since then and the fact that it had been dead a while and i could still see a blood trail leading up to this animal i could figure no other reason why this hunter did not track their kill other then they were lazy. Now im tick off. I watch one hunter take shot that most of us even with alot a practice would not even try. Thin i find out he has taken more shot and not spent the time to look around for his arrows or blood. Then i find a dead buck killed by some other hunter. WOW....Thanks you to those bow hunter who give us good bow hunter a bad name. If you are not going to take the time to practice shooting and take the time to make sure you did not hit the animal then maybe you should PUT YOUR BOW DOWN and quit making the rest of us look bad!!!!!!

Sorry guys had to vent for a min..

have any of you seen some of the same things?



GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL THIS HUNT SEASON

 

[kilowatt]

Have you gone to the F&G people and told them what you have seen and found yet?

Brian

 

[eelgrass]

Most states, if not all, have laws against wanton waste of game animals, but it's almost impossible to prove. The game warden almost has to be right there to witness the violation to get it to stick.

Unfortunatly a legally lisenced hunter can gut shoot elk at 80 yards with his bow all day long. (a rifle hunter can do the same thing so I don't want to seem like I'm picking on bow hunters). The hunter can take a few minutes to go check for blood and maybe decide he missed and be on the hunt again.

The bottom line is us hunters have to understand what a privilege it is to be able hunt on public lands. Buying a lisence and tag fulfills our legal obligation, but we also have a moral obligation that goes along with it. The vast majority of the time we are out there by ourselves and are on the "honor system". We owe it to the wildlife and ourselves as hunters, to be the best stewards of the land and the critters as we can.

Thanks for bringing up this subject. It's good to be reminded of it from time to time.

Steve

 

[hedges]

Which spike unit did you hunt?

Get used to crap like that with this b.s. state wide archery hunt. I'm almost to the point of not bow hunting until things change.

 

[muleybull]

I've seen it. Even on archery hunts where I have passed on longer shots afraid that I would scare the animal out of the country or make a bad shot. Then someone else does it. What can you do. I have been archery hunting for 20 years. During that time I've killed a lot of critters. I made one bad shot at 25 yards on a deer. I never recovered the deer, even after spending 10 days looking, and I didnt try to shoot another deer. I also made a bad shot on an antelope at 50 yards. It took me two days, but I finally found him. He was spoiled, but I still tagged him. Thats just the way it sometimes goes i guess, but too many people shoot and lose animals only to do it again or kill a different one.