HMwolfpup
Senior Member
When reading this, keep in mind this is my neighbor and 2 doors down and we both have to live here...
I got a call last night right after dark from my neighbor saying he shot a deer right before dark and can't find it. he was hunting behind the house, so I got my stuff together and went to help. When I found him, I was surprised that he couldn't show me where the deer had been standing when he shot. got a lot of "well I think he was here, or maybe there". When I looked to the ladder stand he was hunting from, I noticed there was almost no way he had any kind of clear shot and had to have shot through some thin undergrowth to shot the deer any where near where he was showing me. It was well after dark and I knew finding a blood trail would be hard if I didn't know where to start and sure enough, 25 minutes later, I hadn't found the first sign of blood or hair...but keep in mind, I wasn't sure where to start. Neighbor was already waivering, now saying "well, maybe i didn't hit it" I asked which way the deer was facing when he shot and surprise number 2 "he was facing me" :speechles when I expressed my shock, his story changed a little, now saying the deer was "looking" away from him. Now Neighbor is ready to go home and "drink a beer"....which I ain't sure, but think he may have been doing in his stand any way...I was just about to agree, when my light shined toward his foot and he was about to step in a big pool of blood. I showed it to him and now all of a sudden he's talking about the "good shot" he made. To my surprise, even though there was a good pool of blood there was almost no trail. within a 2 feet of the pool of blood I found myself on my hands and knees looking for ANY blood. I found specs here and drops there, so I followed on my hands and knees. I did this for 2 hours, all but 10 minutes or so on my hands and knees, following specs of blood. Every 15 minutes or so, neighbor would say "oh we lost it, let's go in". The first time he said this, I politely explained to him that he couldn't leave an animal in the woods like that and that he really shouldn't be shooting at animals that close to dark if he wasn't willing to put in the effort...oh by the way, neighbor has not once got his knees on the ground for this, just keeps walking in circles and a couple of times, walked over the blood specs I was trying to follow....the second time he said something about going in, I let him have it. I read him the riot act about how much of an irrespnsible hunter he is and that if he can call me out to look for a deer he shot, then he can have the common courtesy of looking for it too. The 3rd time he said something about going in, he said "I don't really want the deer any way". :speechles
this floored me. I asked "THEN WHY DID YOU SHOOT IT?" His response "because I was hunting". I told him that THAT was NOT hunting, that was SHOOTING and he could go to any shooting range with targets and get just as much satisfaction. Again, he said we should go in. I said I can't leave this animal out here like this...even though it wasn't much blood, we were still finding specs of blood here and there, and I had covered about 200 yards on my hands and knees...(and now that VIOXX is off the market, my knees aren't anything to be messed with)....any way to try to get to the end of this....after almost 2 hours, I found another pool of blood. I knew we had to be making progress...but again, the blood stopped and was back to specs and a few drops here and there, I had managed to crawl under and into a briar thicket and didn't know it. Once I realized it, I figured the deer had laid up in the briars to die and I had to be close, but the blood STOPPED I spent 15 minutes in one spot eventually laying down to try to get any angle to find any spec of blood....I couldn't find any thing. My next thought was to call a tracking dog, so I asked neighbor "well, how big was it? Is it worth calling in a tracking dog?" His response "Heck, I aint even sure it was a buck" :speechles . Neighbor had kept saying "he" when he was referring to the deer, so I assumed it was a buck, I haven't seen any big bucks around here, and knowing my neighbor is not real selective to begin with, I didn't figure it was a decent buck or he would have been more excited. Oh yeah, IT'S NOT DOE DAYS HERE.
If this had been at the club or public land or someone I didn't have to live next to, I would have called the game warden on the spot...I know I still should have called the game warden.
What would you have done? Could you report your neighbor that you live less than 150 yards from? Someone you talk to in the afternoons and drink the occassional beer with after work?
sorry for the long post, but I did lose a little sleep over this last night and didn't even consider hunting this morning because of it.
I got a call last night right after dark from my neighbor saying he shot a deer right before dark and can't find it. he was hunting behind the house, so I got my stuff together and went to help. When I found him, I was surprised that he couldn't show me where the deer had been standing when he shot. got a lot of "well I think he was here, or maybe there". When I looked to the ladder stand he was hunting from, I noticed there was almost no way he had any kind of clear shot and had to have shot through some thin undergrowth to shot the deer any where near where he was showing me. It was well after dark and I knew finding a blood trail would be hard if I didn't know where to start and sure enough, 25 minutes later, I hadn't found the first sign of blood or hair...but keep in mind, I wasn't sure where to start. Neighbor was already waivering, now saying "well, maybe i didn't hit it" I asked which way the deer was facing when he shot and surprise number 2 "he was facing me" :speechles when I expressed my shock, his story changed a little, now saying the deer was "looking" away from him. Now Neighbor is ready to go home and "drink a beer"....which I ain't sure, but think he may have been doing in his stand any way...I was just about to agree, when my light shined toward his foot and he was about to step in a big pool of blood. I showed it to him and now all of a sudden he's talking about the "good shot" he made. To my surprise, even though there was a good pool of blood there was almost no trail. within a 2 feet of the pool of blood I found myself on my hands and knees looking for ANY blood. I found specs here and drops there, so I followed on my hands and knees. I did this for 2 hours, all but 10 minutes or so on my hands and knees, following specs of blood. Every 15 minutes or so, neighbor would say "oh we lost it, let's go in". The first time he said this, I politely explained to him that he couldn't leave an animal in the woods like that and that he really shouldn't be shooting at animals that close to dark if he wasn't willing to put in the effort...oh by the way, neighbor has not once got his knees on the ground for this, just keeps walking in circles and a couple of times, walked over the blood specs I was trying to follow....the second time he said something about going in, I let him have it. I read him the riot act about how much of an irrespnsible hunter he is and that if he can call me out to look for a deer he shot, then he can have the common courtesy of looking for it too. The 3rd time he said something about going in, he said "I don't really want the deer any way". :speechles
this floored me. I asked "THEN WHY DID YOU SHOOT IT?" His response "because I was hunting". I told him that THAT was NOT hunting, that was SHOOTING and he could go to any shooting range with targets and get just as much satisfaction. Again, he said we should go in. I said I can't leave this animal out here like this...even though it wasn't much blood, we were still finding specs of blood here and there, and I had covered about 200 yards on my hands and knees...(and now that VIOXX is off the market, my knees aren't anything to be messed with)....any way to try to get to the end of this....after almost 2 hours, I found another pool of blood. I knew we had to be making progress...but again, the blood stopped and was back to specs and a few drops here and there, I had managed to crawl under and into a briar thicket and didn't know it. Once I realized it, I figured the deer had laid up in the briars to die and I had to be close, but the blood STOPPED I spent 15 minutes in one spot eventually laying down to try to get any angle to find any spec of blood....I couldn't find any thing. My next thought was to call a tracking dog, so I asked neighbor "well, how big was it? Is it worth calling in a tracking dog?" His response "Heck, I aint even sure it was a buck" :speechles . Neighbor had kept saying "he" when he was referring to the deer, so I assumed it was a buck, I haven't seen any big bucks around here, and knowing my neighbor is not real selective to begin with, I didn't figure it was a decent buck or he would have been more excited. Oh yeah, IT'S NOT DOE DAYS HERE. If this had been at the club or public land or someone I didn't have to live next to, I would have called the game warden on the spot...I know I still should have called the game warden.
What would you have done? Could you report your neighbor that you live less than 150 yards from? Someone you talk to in the afternoons and drink the occassional beer with after work?
sorry for the long post, but I did lose a little sleep over this last night and didn't even consider hunting this morning because of it.
, I may just let him slip on this one seeing how the deer wasn't located, heck it could of been a dog or a cow for all you know :
