What would you do if you came upon a wounded deer?

What would you do if you came upon a wounded deer while hunting?

  • Shoot the deer to put it out of it's misery and continue to hunt

    Votes: 105 47.7%
  • Shoot the deer and put your tag on it - meat is meat after all.

    Votes: 74 33.6%
  • Walk away, leave the deer and continue to hunt, not your problem.

    Votes: 11 5.0%
  • Walk away and try to get in touch with fish and wildlife to inform them about the deer.

    Votes: 30 13.6%

  • Total voters
    220

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There's been an occasion that I've come upon a wounded deer that had obvioulsy been shot by another hunter. The front fore leg was mangled and the deer was hobbling badly. It didn't look good for the deer. It stood there and looked at me too injured to run away. I'm not going to tell you what I did but I would like to know what other hunters would do in this situation which is why I've posted this poll. If this has been posted before I'm sorry but I need to know what most hunters would do in this situation. I did have my own unfilled deer tag by the way.
 
Shoot it and walk away. It's wolf bait anyway. As far as eating it, I'd be concerned about infection, how old is the wound?

A few years ago I jumped up a doe with a broken front leg, just watched it hobble away, hindsight I maybe should have dumped it. Also saw a fawn with a tumour the size of a soccer ball under its front leg, causing its leg to be at a 90 degree angle, should have dumped it as well, but didn't.
 
A friend of mine once made a bad shot on a nice 6pt buck. The deer was shot in the knee on a Monday evening. We went back to the same spot on Saturday the same week and did some drives to get it to move. I shot the deer as it was moving away from my partner.

Long story short .......... I gave all the meat to my buddy as I already had lots. It made his family sick (vomit) both times that they ate it. He later found out that, because it was wounded for a few days prior to dying was the reason for the food poisoning.

I'd shoot it and walk next time.

Here's a pic of that buck ..............

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Anyone with any morals at all would not want to see it suffer. Let me add a twist to this story.

We chased a bush for whitetail and out comes a nice young bull elk with one of it's front legs spinning like a propellor.Obviously shot fairly recently. No elk tag, do you shoot it and take a chance the game warden is not up on a hill in the distance somewhere watching you with binoculars or do you pass and let it go.
I let it walk away wounded and have been dissapointed in myself ever since, the wolves probably ate it alive, a bite at a time.
 
I live on a farm and am well known in my community. I even get calls from the wildfife centre to put down deer hit by vehicles. We get alot of deer hit buy cars and in the last 20 yrs I likely shot 5 or 6. I remember one fawn I had to kill with an axe because I had no gun with me---Cowboy
 
This past season a friend of mine came upon a doe that had its front leg blown clean off. He had heard what turned out to be the animal calling out in agony for hours before investigating what the noise was. He tracked the animal for 45 mins then put it out of its misery, and tagged it. He said it tasted no different than any other deer he's eaten.
- seems the deer was shot before legal light as he was in his stand 2 hrs before light.
 
Let the local conservation officers know and follow their instructions.

Shoot it and walking away may well get you a charge of poaching. I know but that is todays reality, unfortunetly.
 
taffman said:
Anyone with any morals at all would not want to see it suffer. Let me add a twist to this story.

We chased a bush for whitetail and out comes a nice young bull elk with one of it's front legs spinning like a propellor.Obviously shot fairly recently. No elk tag, do you shoot it and take a chance the game warden is not up on a hill in the distance somewhere watching you with binoculars or do you pass and let it go.
I let it walk away wounded and have been dissapointed in myself ever since, the wolves probably ate it alive, a bite at a time.

I wouldn't shoot it either. Like Gibbs said that's the reality of hunting in Canada these days.

Cruel as it may seem, all wolves eat their prey one bite at a time.
 
If an animal was obviously suffering and not likely to survive, I would shoot it and sort the details out after the fact.
This does not make me a hero or a lawbreaker... just lets me sleep a little better that night.
Good question though.
 
This is a very good question. I really don't know what I would do for fear of being charged. I may actually call the MNR tomorrow and see what they have to say about it legaly. If I get around to calling and they give me an answer I will post it.
 
In Saskatchewan you get a replacement tag anyway if you shoot an animal that is inedible because of a previous wound or disease. The temptation to skip a step and just keep your tag would be understandable.The same thing applies to vehicle injured deer. Notice how I got through that without making any confessions?:rolleyes:
A few years ago we came on a young crippled bull moose while deer hunting. We were actually able to reach SERM on a cell phone and they asked us to shoot it and gut it. The moose turned out to have a joint injury that was reset at a disfiguring angle and fused like that. There was a farmer loading round bales close by, so we asked him to load it for us and we hauled it into town. All round it had to be the easiest moose in the history of hunting. Since the injury was healed the carcass was considered edible and the COs said it would end up going to the friendship inn or someplace similar. This is the picture that they sent me, along with their thanks.



MVC-001S.jpg
 
The MNR will tell you unequivocally NO.. do not shoot it unless you are going to tag it legally. They will tell you to phone them to report wounded animals.
 
I also would put it out of its misery. Here in Que. a call to the proper authorities is near a waste of time since there are hardly any more conservation officer's around anymore, which is another reason why there are so many idiots getting away with stuff around here ( but thats another story) Two yrs ago while hunting my buddy shot a deer that had been previously shot, and after cleaning it we saw a big bulge on his leg that seemd to be healed over, but upon closer investigation it stunk. My buddy made the mistake of cutting it open while skinnning it and out poured a white milky liquid with a NASTY puke invoking smell.(live and learn) So that was a wasted deer tag, since we threw the whole deer out, and since we only can shoot one deer a yr. here, my buddy was pissed with good reason.
 
I would shoot it and if nothing came from it I would leave it at that. If I was found out I would deal with it then. The conservation officers are trained to pick out inconsistencies in a persons story. If it is the truth there is only one story.
 
I have been there shot it tagged it and ate it . The deer had been hit in the back leg as was doomed but could hobble enough to make me chase it into a swamp. I cut about 6 inches back from the wound and let it hang an extra day. I also didn't take the heart or liver. but the meat was good and the animal was put out of it's misery .
 
Like Cowboy, I have killed a number of deer that werehit on the road.Aas a sportsman I have a responsabilty to insure game does not suffer. Dog cat moose or cow they all deserve to go quick
 
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