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Put him out of his misery or not? Poll

Put Him Out of His Misery Or Not?

  • Yes

    Votes: 35 85.4%

  • No

    Votes: 6 14.6%
  • Total voters
    41
gcr0003

gcr0003

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2018
Messages
8,046
After my morning hunt I got down and took my gear back to my vehicle and decided to go scout. Not long into my walk a came up on a spike bedded down. He got up and his front left leg was hanging on by skin and he was limping bad. He was very malnourished and looking frail and out of it.

What would you do? Let nature take care of em like nature will or put him out of his misery?
 
I've seen enough 3 legged deer I wouldn't worry about it. But that's just me. If you want to shoot him do it, but I wouldn't do it just because of the injury. If that makes sense. Coyotes have to eat too.
 
One, I'm a bad enough person I wouldn't burn a tag on it. If I shot him, I'd shoot him and leave him lay. If you think he's gonna die, YOU didn't kill him. You just saved him some suffering.

Two, I have a buck on the wall that was 4.5 years or better who had 3 legs. Back left was snapped off. He was a dink 10 point when I killed him. I could not tell he was wounded when I shot him walking a scrape line at 100 yards. We had 3 years of camera pics of him and his broke leg. Deer are tough. I can bet you money if that spike could talk he'd rather take his chances than be put down.
 
Pretty much exact same situation happened to me recently. I found a 6 point hit by a car with broken leg. He was not getting up but still very alive. I would have gladly just killed him and wrapped a tag on him but in my area he wasn’t a legal buck. I called the department of conservation and they gave me permission to kill the deer and mailed a salvage tag.
 
I shot one several years ago during a river float that had a broken back leg. He stunk to high heaven in the canoe for the rest of the river float. When I got home and skinned him I found that the source of the stench was the gangrenous wound around the break. I ended up throwing that whole deer away.
 
I saw a basket 6 point 2 years ago that had his lower jaw barely hanging on. No way he would be able to eat. It was a week after rifle season so my guess is some weekend warrior made a terrible shot. I had my bow and he was a few hundred yards and away. I would of gladly used up my buck tag on him.
 
Not a chance that I'd do it here in PA. There is no legal way here to do, and no chance I'd do it illegally and risk my hunting privileges. I'm not a righteous person and never have claimed to be, so unless it was a nice buck and I had a tag, live or die, it's on it's own. I'm not a vet, deer are tough and have survived some unbelievable injuries, so I dont really agree with putting an animal out of its misery..... you just dont know.
 
I had a similar situation last year. I heard 3 close shots, and a wounded buck came by running.

He was a 4pt and was clearly hit, but running at speed. I didn’t have time to assess the severity of his injuries. I really only had time to get a quick shot off, and it was good enough to drop him.

I had passed up bigger bucks that morning, and planned to hold out during gun season for a mature buck, having already shot my biggest ever with a bow earlier in the year.

I hoped one of the other hunters would happen by to tag the buck. I ended up talking to one of those shooters...who wouldn’t take the deer, and said he only shot at it because it was wounded.

So, that ended my hunting season.

I feel like I did the right thing, but won’t pretend I wasn’t frustrated as well.

Oddly enough, hand to heart, I can’t remember a deer that tasted so good.
 
Take him home, put a scooter under that bad leg, name him tripod, and use him to educate local youths about how they can take part in making nature less awful!

I’m kidding. Shoot him or don’t. Don’t lose sleep either way. You can make a good case to do pretty much anything within the law, and a few things outside of it. If that deers body can outlast the infection he’ll be fine. If he gets eaten, good. You could make the argument you’re causing the coyotes suffering by killing and removing him from the woods. It’s just a big circle and what you do has no material impact.

here’s the bar - if your white tail can catch his white tail on foot, he’s a dead deer walking. If he can evade you, he’s got a shot.
 
kyler1945 said:
Take him home, put a scooter under that bad leg, name him tripod, and use him to educate local youths about how they can take part in making nature less awful!

I’m kidding. Shoot him or don’t. Don’t lose sleep either way. You can make a good case to do pretty much anything within the law, and a few things outside of it. If that deers body can outlast the infection he’ll be fine. If he gets eaten, good. You could make the argument you’re causing the coyotes suffering by killing and removing him from the woods. It’s just a big circle and what you do has no material impact.

here’s the bar - if your white tail can catch his white tail on foot, he’s a dead deer walking. If he can evade you, he’s got a shot.
Click to expand...
I could walk quickly and catch him and cut his throat. These are all valid points. I already made my decision with no remorse but I was curious what others would do.

Nature is tough and deer are tough in order to survive it. Could go either way like many have said.
 
Hide the broken leg, clean him up, position him and the camera angle where he looks the biggest and take a hero pic for the internet. Talk about how you found his bed and been hunting him for 5 years. Go into detail about the 5 mile hike, swam alligator infested waters, tied water moccasins together to use as a drag rope, and all done on the most pressured public land.
 
May sound odd but I would kill him and cut our his back straps and leave the rest for nature. May not be legal but I believe it is the right thing to do. Shawn
 
Buddy who i fish with this weekend talked about his hunting season. He says, i shot two and stabbed one...Boy did that raise an eyebrow! Forget the two you shot...Tell me about stabbing a deer!?! lol.

He setup to hunt. Noticed something in front of him 20yds or so. So little movement he figured squirrel for a little bit. Turns out it was a spike buck bedded. Only able to raise head a little, and not often. After his hunt, he petted the deer for a few minutes apparently. Deer giving him the look of "put me out of my misery" so he did quickly with a knife behind the ear. He returned the following few days and then two weeks later the body was moved finally. Whole body infection i would guess and nuttin wanted to eat him until a some time passed it sounds.

Grew up on a farm. We put animals out of their misery when necessary, ours and some neighbors who couldn't stomach it. Something i support, but animal should be given ample time to recover of course before taking quick action. Good natured people don't want to dispatch anything, but will if it is right.

It doesn't matter to me whether someone dispatches a critter in misery. Nature isn't always pretty.
 
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