Who's animal is it????

B

bandedbigsixpoints

Member
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When there is an animal hit with a bullet, arrow etc. and it doesn't immediately go down, and it walks across another hunter and they shoot it before it dies who should claim the animal?

Throw this into the boiler: the first shot was a fatal shot that just hadn't taken it's full affect yet.
 
For archery......I would say the first arrow that delivered a lethal shot.

BOHNTR )))---------->
 
From a legal stand point I believe the person who shot it last gets the buck. Ethics is a whole different story?
 
I was told by a game officer a few years ago that whomever puts their tag on it first gets it.

There was an incident several years back in-which I was helping a guy track a big buck (bleeding real good) and as we came around the hill two guys were running to their truck dragging the deer.
The kid I was helping confronted them and they claimed they shot the buck and didn't even know anyone else had shot it.

Anyway, after that deal I called the game officer and that's what I was told.

Brian Latturner
MonsterMuleys.com
 
It is easy to say who ever draws first blood...but what if the shot grazes the lower leg or an area on the animal that will not kill it? This is a very touchy subject and each situation will probably be different. If it ever happens to me, I hope the other individual that is involved isn't a jerk. It could get nasty.

Steve
 
For me, let the guy who gets to the animal first have it. Just means more hunting time for me and less mess to deal with. Having said that it's been a while since I shot a buck that was worthy of hanging on the wall.

400bull
 
This is just a sticky mess

I mean if you shot at a 2 pt wounded it someone else shot it would you make a fuss over it?

what if it was a 180 class buck??

Where do you draw the line? I just hope that both parties can be polite and reach a sollution.
 
Its seems to me that everyone has covered about every aspect. I also think most hunters would do the right.
 
THIS HAPPENED TO ME ON A BULL ELK IN WYOMING IN 2006. WE WERE BOTH FROM CALIFORNIA......INSTEAD OF JAWIN OVER IT....WE TOSSED A COIN......I WON.....SETTLED.......YD.
 
it goes to the last person who shoots it and kills it they are also legaly obligated to tag it ....if you think this thru it makes sence , not always the right thing but always the legal thing ... this mistake is done a lot with kids and women they shoot them knock em down and then dad or husband walks up and shoots them in the head or kneck the cooo degra , at that moment the final shooter has killed the animal and is fully responsible.
 
happend to me. it sucks when some 1 takes your prize and meat home with them. i shot a 5 by 4 bull elk just before he enterd some pines. i was about 200 yrds from where he went in. i went down go on the trail. fallowed it about 100 yrs. bang here a shot. walk another 100 up the trail and 2 guys are standing over the bull. as i walk up they are high fiving and jerking it out from under a pine tree. i say hey guys i shot that bull and have benn tracking him for 200 yrds. im by myself and 1 guy is huge. he stands up strait and the other guy looks kinda funny. i say look here is where i hit it. look on the left side 3 inches behind the shoulder. they just stand ther looking funny at me. so i put down my gun and pack. flip him onto his other side and stuff my finger into the whole. i then ask the shooter what size his gun is. he say 243. im shooting an 30 06. the big guy then says it ours i dont care if you did shoot it first. i then stood up walked over to some guys that were sitting watching us. i got to them and stoped to breith. the oldest guy there turns and says to me. they took your elk hugh. i said yes. he then said he herd my shot. then a few oments later the bull came up and dropped under that tree. he said he almost shot it but could see it was down for good. the other guys shot it laying under the tree. good thing it was a rag horn is all i can say. but that yr my family had no elk meat. it went to texas.
 
TheBroker nailed it. Legally it is not "first blood," this is an old hunting term that seems to originate from areas where drives and party hunting are the norm. Back to the good old law of capture. Morally you would want the person who put a killing shot on the animal to be able to recover his game, especially since it was essentially dying as a result of his shot. However, the general legal principal is that the first one to "capture" the animal, i.e., apply the coup de grace, place your hand and/or tag on the animal, is the person who obtains the right to the animal. I hate to see it abused and I can't believe there are people out there that would want an animal that had been effectively killed by someone else. Talk about bringing some bad hunting karma into your life...
 
I say that the one that "kills" it gets it. If a deer or elk is still walking it is not dead and is fair game. If you can tell that it is going down and know that it has been shot, I would expect everyone to finish it and help the other hunter. I know that it sounds like I just contradicted myself...but I didn't.

If I am hunting, hear a shot then see a running deer. I will shoot it for sure. It all comes down to doing what is right. If it is a big buck or a two point. Is it going to be hard to finish off a big buck then help the other hunter? Sure it is, but if you could tell that it was going down, it is not yours. But if it is bustin brush and you kill it only to find out that someone else had wounded it first then it is yours.

2pointer
 
Yep, this has been thoroughly debated before on this site (and many others.... ;-) ).....

Law says if you kill it, you tag it!

When growing-up we always went by the 'you kill it, you claim it rule'. Not always easy to take if you're the one who put the first lethal shot on the animal that just hasn't fallen yet, but until you put referees in the hunting field, what else are you gonna do???

S.

:)
 
I think the ruling in most states would be who actually kills the animal and has posession of it. If it's walking it's still alive and fair game to be shot by another hunter and put down. This shouldn't be an issue but people will always claim that they made the killing shot since the animal could have bled out and died. It's a sticky wicket at best but it can get pretty heated and I actually witnessed a G&F guy giving the deer to the guy that shot second and actually killed it in an argument. He looked at the first guy and said you didn't kill him he did and the laws very specific in that regard besides you still have a tag now go hunt. I think most hunters would do the right thing and I certainly hope if a child is involved they certainly would do what's right.
 
This situation happened to me year before last. I hit a cow neck high in the neck (which will be my last neck/head shot). She went straight down but then got up after a couple seconds and wandered down the hill and out of sight before i could get another shot in her. I decided I'd give her time to bed down so i sat for about a half hour. I tracker her for maybe a half hour when i came over a rise and on top of a guy dressing her out. He came up on here while she was bedded and finished her off. I congratulated him and went on my way. There was no conflict whatsoever and i was just happy that someone got the elk, although im pretty sure i would have got back on her and finished her off myself. It also didnt hurt that i was by myself and i was kinda happy i didnt have to haul her the couple miles back up to the road.
If it were a bull or a trophy deer, i would have had alot different feelings about it, it would have really sucked. Im pretty sure i wouldn't have tried to finaggle my way into keeping it though, it seems to me the guy that actually kills the animal should get it.
 
Here is the thread from last year:

http://www.monstermuleys.info/cgi-b..._thread&om=15356&forum=DCForumID6&archive=yes

I had a similar thing happen to me when I was 17. The story is in the thread above, you can find it and look it up. Short version - I saw a barely legal 3pt running across the canyon with its guts hanging out and a hunter chasing it (running full speed) I yell to him asking me if he wants me to put it down for him - he says yes. I hit him twice - both lethal but the buck doesn't go down. Guy gets over there, we track it together,down side canyon. I go one way following the blood trail, he goes down the bottom and disappears, leaves me with the buck (Thanks a lot Russell - a whole hell of a lot!). I tried to find him to give him back his buck but never did.


UTROY
Proverbs 21:19 (why I hunt!)
 
First killing blood! I'm not talking a grazing shot but if you put one behind the shoulder and he races off for 50yds, that deer is not/ should not be fair game to someone who wants to take advantage of their local law.

Joey
 
Long, long ago, after many years of trying, I finally got a shot at my first bull elk. Perfect lung shot, but he was running when I shot. It was a few hundred yards before I "tracked him down". My pants were literally red with blood from the bushes where he bled as I followed. I heard a rifle shot about 30 seconds before I got to the dead elk. Five guys were standing around him and claimed it was their elk.

I actually started to walk away before I tought about the 250 hours of hiking uphill I had invested in that bull.

I shot it and it was mine.

That was what was fair and is what happened. Right and ethical is more important than any "law".



Within the shadows, go quietly.
 
The law of the bowhunter that is taught in bow ed is the rule of first blood. In other words the first person that makes a lethal hit is the harvester of the animal. Bowhunters follow blood trails, it's a fact of the game. RARELY does a big game animal drop on the spot when hit with an arrow and broadhead.
 
The animal should go to the first man to draw blood! Just
from common courtesy! If a hunter is so hard up he needs to steal game from someone else,he should just drive the highway and pick up road kill! I'm familar with the incident the founder is talking about, the guy that stole the buck posted a picture of himself with the animal in the Riverdale Sportsman's Warehouse without knowing his buddy had let the cat out of the bag and told how the guy actually got the deer. I always say "if you don't have a story to tell about the hunt you don't have a trophy" can you imagine the guy that has to lie each time someone asks him about his trophy? Wouldn't be worth it would it? Remember, once you lose your credibility you never regain it! It may be hard to give up a special animal but it would be much better than accepting undeserved credit. Hope the deer thief from ROY Ut. gets to read this!
WOW... The way some of you think,I'm surprised the Mossback crew doesn't have a bunch of hunters just following them around waiting for gunshots, then just trying to outrun the shooter to the game with tag in hand. Then they could post their picture on this site and impress us all!
 
Unfortunately, most of us would like to believe that the first lethal blood gets it, but as the fellow a few posts up states, what about the guys who walk up to a dead animal and shoot it and claim it was alive? I've heard this happens a lot here in WA where there are a lot of 'hungry' hunters who hunt in 'packs' and try to intimadate hunters with their numbers. I'm really amazed guys don't get shot when this happens. I try to do all of my hunting in areas where there is almost no chance of seeing another hunter, so that this doesn't happen.
 
I agree with the feelings of most on here, that ethics say first "good" hit should get the animal. I also know that the law is not made for any grey area. I hope we are all big enough to do the right thing. I know my grandpa was when he shot a monster and another guy claimed him. It was obvious who had hit him and he just gave it away to the guy. There was only one hole and they shot from completely different sides of the deer. Grandpa really didn't care much. I would have had a lot harder time than he did giving up a big trophy. I wish you all luck and hope you don't have to deal with this in your future hunts.
 
I agree with many of these comments, but I would say there is a lot of gray area in the law. The law on this will vary from state to state. But, when I was in law school, we studied a case about this exact situation. It was an old case, but it was decided that if Hunter 1 can prove it was a lethal shot, and he/she would have recovered the animal with reasonable efforts, the animal belongs to the first shooter. That way, if you graze it or inflict a non-lethal wound, Hunter 2 would have the right to claim. That being said, there are practical things to consider, e.g. whether it's worth the fight or whether the situation might escalate and compromise your safety. Anyway, just my two cents - I hope it never happens to me because you not going to find a judge and jury in the backcountry.
 

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