I’ve had multiple animals shot by other hunters after I hit them first.
the first experience was back in 2011 on the archery hunt. It was Monday evening, day 3. I spotted a group of bucks feed out into a little draw from thick cover. There was 1 good buck, 170” 4x4. From past experience I knew there was a very good chance these deer would feed there all night and as soon as the sun hit them the next morning, they would cross a saddle near by and head towards the shade in the next canyon over. I got up early and was in position right as it started getting light. Sure enough, 20 minutes later, here comes 3 of the bucks in the group, walking down the anticipated trail, crossing 40 yards infront of me. I waited. Then here comes 2 more, same exact trail. Then out of nowhere, the bigger buck pops up 30 yards further below the trail. I set my sight, waited for him to stop and I released. He was quartered away from me slightly, the arrow hit mid body, dead center. He jumped, kicked and took off, SPRAYING blood. I watched him cover about 150 yards, straight down hill in about 4 bounds. He gets to the nearest tree, stops, and lays down in a bed. I know this deer is dead. I just need to give him the recommended 30 minutes, just to be sure. His buddies come over by him and stand there wondering WTF. 10 minutes later, one snorts and they all take off back up hill towards me. Now I’m wondering WTF. As I sat there watching, I notice some dude skyline himself on a finger ridge, not 30 yards from my deer. As soon as I get my binos on him, I see him draw back his bow and shoot. He stands there looking at the deer, now he’s wondering WTF. I grab all my crap, and take off running down to the deer. We both get there about the same time. There’s this buck, laying in a giant pool of blood, entrance mid ribs, exit behind opposite shoulder, who now has an arrow stuck in his neck as well. Just an entrance, no exit. Hardly any blood coming from that wound. instantly he gets fired up that I’m anywhere near this deer. I start out nice and calm, but quickly we are both exchanging F bombs at each other. I would have loved to be on the other side of the canyon and hear all this go down. That had to be something to witness ? He was shooting a 4 blade broadhead of some kind, I had a 3 blade expandable. No question on who’s holes belonged to who. He tried to tell me he hit that buck the night before and was trailing it. I asked to see his blood trail and he started yelling more suggestive comments on what to do with myself. It was very obvious that when his arrow hit it, that deer was dead and the heart wasn’t pumping anymore, he had already bled out. I Told him I have a blood trail, all the way up to the saddle and I’d be happy to show him (keep in mind, there’s no cell service here and I didn’t have a phone to record this or I would have). At that point he says to me “do you have a firearm on you?” I replied with a ‘no’. He says “well I do. And this is my deer. And if you want to challenge that anymore, it better be worth dying for.” I just grabbed my chit, turned and left. that was a hard one for me to swallow. That was by far my biggest deer to that point. I shot a consolation prize 145” 4x4 the next day. It was one of the deer that was in that same group. It still burns me to even think about it.
the next one was in 2015, archery hunting again ?, for elk. I passed a guy and his kid hiking up a popular trail about an hour before light, on my dirtbike. I pass people hiking all the time and rarely see them go as far as I do on my bike. We waved and that was it. I get to my glassing point and quickly realized I had accidentally walking right into a herd of cow elk feeding in the sage. Trying to hold out for a spike I thought about passing for about .3 seconds, but In doing so, my muscle memory had already take over and an arrow was knocked and was starting to draw my bow. I’ll admit, I don’t miss the heart shot at 15 yards very often, but for some reason I shot about 5” higher than I wanted to hit. Still lethal, but I knew she would travel some before expiring. She took off, headed down hill back towards my bike. The perfect direction. After 15 minutes, I took up the trail. Blood everywhere, very obvious to see. I’m color blind so seeing blood can get challenging some times, but this one I could run down. As I got into some aspens, I can hear people talking ahead of me. From previous experiences, I knew this wasn’t good for my team. I start going towards them, and wouldn’t you know it, here’s this guy and kid from earlier, standing over a dead cow. That has now 2 arrow holes through her. The dad you could tell didn’t want to be confrontational about about it, or didn’t know how to be. The kid seem to know more about the ethics of the scenario than the dad did. The kid sat there silent as we discussed the events of the morning. His story was they were walking through the trees and this elk ran by them and stopped, the kid shot it and it fell over. Since there was an entrance and an exit x2 on her, I had to believe his story. He claims he didn’t see blood on her, that I don’t believe. There was bright red blood all over her side and legs. Anyways, the dad finally says “it’s his first elk, and you’ll ruin bowhunting for him forever if you decide you need to take it. You don’t want that on you, do you?” I looked at the kid and said “you see this situation? I’d hope you take my example and learn from it, more than you do your dads right now. Congrats on the elk.” and walked off. It died 100 yards from my bike. That is the part that sucked the most since I killed a spike 3 days later in a hole that was 2.5 miles from my bike
I’ve talked to many fish cops about this scenario. They’ve all said in Utah, the first guy to cut their tag and put it on the animal is taking ownership of it. There’s nothing that can be done about it after that’s taken place. It’s not fun. But if you hunt long enough on public lands, I’d imagine many hunters will find themselves in this kind of situation at some point.
