Would You Take a Wounded Animal on Your Tag

[WyoDoug]

This video is deer but this applies to all spiecies. I have taken wounded deer, antelope and one elk in Colorado and shot one wounded antelope in Wyoming. None of these were animals I would normally tag deliberately but I do not like to let animals suffer much. Sometimes this leads to more damaged meat you have to trim away. But how many of you would take an animal like this to avoid it suffering much more?

 

[Bigjay73]

In a heartbeat. Decent chance that if you contacted CPW they will issue another tag, but I'd tag it regardless

 

[Bigjay73]

But after thinking about it, would I if it were a unit 2 rifle bull tag? Hmmmmm

 

[rogerthat]

Have done it and would again as needed.

 

[Pucky Freak]

I've shot a lot of animals that looked healthy, but when dressing them found wounds from fighting, shots from other hunters, etc. I don't think I've ever observed a seriously wounded animal, but if I did I would put one down and fill my tag though. Even if some of the meat was not salvageable at least the animal's suffering would be over. Now if it's just a minor injury like missing part of an ear or something, then no.

 

[Nick87]

Saw a doe tonight with what looked like a scarred/ wounded shoulder.. couldn't get a good look though. She seemed to be walking fine so she git a pass.

 

[Point Creep]

What if it were a bighorn sheep?

 

[Hilljackoutlaw]

Lots of variables, but most occasions definitely!

 

[Caseknife]

Probably 30 years ago, the 4th day into the elk season, spike only unit and a cow season had started that day and there was also permits for branched antler elk, I came across blood in the snow. I followed the tracks downhill in a draw, had a hunting partner on each side of me on the ridges. The blood was not drops, but rather smears in the snow, the hooves were splayed out and the elk couldn't, or wouldn't take the game trails up out of the draw, just kept going down. As I am following the tracks, I am thinking what if it is a cow or a branched bull, neither of which I have a tag for, what do I do? Turned a corner in the draw, about 40 yards ahead was a spike bull with his lower jaw hanging, down logs across the draw blocked his path. About gagged when we were field dressing him, had to get rid of the lower jaw pronto. That is the first and only animal that I have gutted that the guts fell away when the belly was sliced open, he was that dehydrated. Turns out that he was shot opening day of the season and wasn't able to eat or drink since then, talked to the hunter that shot him. Convinced that he would have fed the bears and coyotes right where I found him if I hadn't killed him. We packed the heart and liver back to camp, and then realized that the liver had been filtering that dehydrated blood and infection for 4 days, it got fed to the camp robbers. Couldn't tell the difference in taste of the meat from the other elk we killed that fall. I'm glad that there was snow and I was able to track that bull for about a mile to end his suffering.

 

[Schaaf]

Shot an elk a few years ago with a broken hind leg. The rear quarters had lost probably 65% of the muscle they should have had.

I watched her for 20 minutes and couldn’t walk away.

 

[buffybr]

Years ago I went pheasant hunting with my son and one of his friends. When we got to the hunting area, I discovered that the only shotshells that I had were a box of Trap 7 1/2 Handicap loads. A couple of hours into the hunt, we jumped a 2 point buck. The buck did a couple of jumps and fell down. I then saw a fresh wound on his hip and it looked like his leg as broken.

I had a deer tag in my pocket, so I switched my O/U to the top full choke barrel, slowly walked up to about 10' from him and put 1 1/8 ounces of #7 1/2 shot into his forehead, put my deer tag on him, and that ended my deer hunting for that year.

What if it were a bighorn sheep?

I've told this story before ... The year before I shot my last Mt Unlimited ram, I came up on 2 legal rams a little over 10 yards from me. I had killed a full curl ram the year before, so I just picked up a small rock and threw it under hand and hit one of the rams.

Both of the rams ran up the hill and I heard a shot. Seconds later both rams ran down to me. One ram ran out into an avalanche chute to me left, and the other ram ran to my right. He had been gut shot and he was dragging his smsll intestines like a rope. I followed him to the next chute and finished him.

I then went back and found the guide and his hunter who had wounded the ram, and took them to their ram. I then helped them pack the meat over the mountain back to their camp. The outfitter invited me to stay for dinner and gave me his biggest t-bone steak, and he made sure that my golden retriever got plenty of bones.

I ate my ram tag that year, but I went back to that mountain the next year and shot the other ram.

 

[BearLakeHunter]

First time poster here. I had an experience like this several years ago and after reading through these posts, I may have made the wrong decision. While hunting, I came across an injured two point mule deer buck. His front leg was swollen and broken and he looked like he did t feel good at all. Normally i let these young bucks go, but my initial thought was to shoot him to put him out of misery but then I got worried about infection and whether or not I could use his meat or if it was not safe to eat. He really did look like crap. It wasn’t easy, but I ultimately decided not to pull the trigger because of my worry about the infection and not being able to use any of the meat. That may have been the wrong decision but it’s what I did. Was my concern of infection off base?

PS- it’s good to be part of this forum.

 

[Dsnow9]

I shot an antelope doe in Wyoming a couple years that was guy shot. Dragging the whole intestines in the ground. No one around and obviously recent as she was still walking. She was less than 50 yards away and bedded behind a sage brush. Side note… amazing how quickly they disappear when bedded in sage. I shot her in the head, skinned and parted her out and threw her in the cooler. Didn’t lose an ounce of meat.

 

[F250]

Last year during the late muzzle loader doe season I had an adult doe run out into the meadow I was watching. I hadn't heard any shots that morning. She was about 75 yards from me, and I could see that her front left leg was broken. She was motoring along on three legs. I didn't hesitate to shoot the deer and claim her. The meat was fine.

 

[dgc1963]

A few yrs ago I had an 8 point buck walk by and it was covered in those black tumors they can get prob 300 plus on him the worst looking deer I ever saw even had its eyes covered once I saw it I knew I was going to shoot it
I had no Idea if I could eat it or not called the local game warden an sent a pic he gave me a replacement tag due to the number of tumors on it he told me he was glad I shot it

 

[blueridge]

Absolutely

 

[tarheel]

My neighbor Bob was holding a special draw cow tag and I came along for a couple of days while waiting for mulie season to open. We were in NW CO on the plateau above Dinosaur NM seems like eons ago when I came across a track in the snow with a broken hind leg. It had been spitting little round balls of snow that morning at first light and there were some in the tracks but they looked too fresh to ignore. Bob couldn't find his way out of a parking lot so he followed while I trailed the tracks straight downhill through a grove of quakies and coming out at the bottom of that slope the tracks no longer had the snow balls in them so I knew I was on a hot trail. The elk was heading straight down off the plateau and I figured she was looking for a place to bed down or else for water. The further down I went the thinner the snow got until there was none and trailing got slower but I could still find track. Luckily she had bedded down in a cluster of buck brush behind a huge rock and I busted her out and Bob took her out of her misery. At least the wound was fairly recent and she didn't go to waste.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

I thought about this one a lot, the problem I have is I only get a rifle tag once every couple of years.

With that being said, I probably wouldn't tag a lame deer with a rifle any tag.

Archery I would because I can get that tag every year.

I just don't think I could lose the opportunity that so rarely comes around

 

[schmalts]

In a general tag area and i really felt the animal had zero chance and was in a lot of pain I guess.... But Who am I to judge what is really a lot of pain and what the chances it has? I have seen plenty of 3 legged deer in my lifetime and they were doing pretty good all healed over. Shot a 3 legged hog in California once too that was doing just fine. I am going to be honest, if it is a tag that took me a lot of money and years of points, I am not going to shoot something I don't want unless I am ready to go home.

 

[Caseknife]

First time poster here. I had an experience like this several years ago and after reading through these posts, I may have made the wrong decision. While hunting, I came across an injured two point mule deer buck. His front leg was swollen and broken and he looked like he did t feel good at all. Normally i let these young bucks go, but my initial thought was to shoot him to put him out of misery but then I got worried about infection and whether or not I could use his meat or if it was not safe to eat. He really did look like crap. It wasn’t easy, but I ultimately decided not to pull the trigger because of my worry about the infection and not being able to use any of the meat. That may have been the wrong decision but it’s what I did. Was my concern of infection off base?

PS- it’s good to be part of this forum.

Welcome to the forum, BearLakeHunter.

You would probably have been ok on the infection stand point. May have lost part of the front leg, but otherwise the meat more than likely would have been edible.

Wild animals are tough critters and pretty resilient. I remember a bull elk that we were processing years, one of his front legs had been broken and healed about an inch shorter than the other. There were no outward signs of an injury. Seem to recall that there were two elk that had broken bones that had healed during that cutting session. One of my college classmates had killed a spike bull in rifle season that had a broadhead encased in scar tissue that was inside the pericardial sac around the heart, perfectly healthy elk.