Deer Theft...

[DairyLandDeerHunter]

In 2000, on the opening day of Wisconsin's gun deer season I shot a fat spike buck. I tagged it, field dressed it, and my dad helped me drag it out and hang it on the meat pole back at camp. We come back the next morning to camp, and my buck is nowhere to be found. My tag is laying in the snow, and we see drag marks leading down to the edge of our drive, to a foreign set of tire tracks in the snow. Needless to say, being 14 years old, I was crushed.

Fast forward to this 2011 hunt, I shot a nice eight point buck on the last day of the gun season. I went to go register it and came back sitting in the truck, waiting for my father and my sister to come out from their morning hunt. A beat up car came cruising along the road and slowed down a little to see my deer laying in my trailer. They moved on and I thought nothing of it. Five minutes later the same car comes down the road creeping ever so slowly and stops behind my trailer. They hadn't seen me sitting in my truck and I watched them in the rear-view mirror as the two guys got out of their car and approached my truck and trailer. The driver did a quick look around, and reached in the bed of my trailer and grabbed my deer by the front legs, and as the passenger went in to grab the rear legs, I jumped out of the truck and screamed "What the hell do you think you guys are doing?!"....Shocked, they jumped back in their car, sped off, and conveniently the car had no license plate. All I was able to do was call in the description of the car, and I never heard anything from it.

My point is, how low will people stoop to get a deer? It troubles me to think someone can steal somebody else's deer and make off with it and claim it as their own. It disgusts me how some people ruin this tradition, with this antler craze that is going on, and are so desperate to get a buck even if it means stealing it. What has this world come to? Anybody else have any experiences like this?

[kellory]

It is not just deer. I am a controlled access technician. (That means I fix doors) Part of my job is keeping people out of places they are not supposed to be, and the effort people put into being thieves is unreal. If they can't access it they bypass it, if they can't bypass it, they distroy it. Jam it, force it, or drive a car through it. pennies lammed in locks to prevent them from latching, You name it! The point is, if they worked at thier jobs as hard as they work to steal, they would be much wealthier now, and no prison record. Thieves are a lower class life forrms. Parisites!

[DairyLandDeerHunter]

Amen to that kellory!

[Bukmastr]

I shot a huge 6 pointer on a deer drive in Waukesha county a few years ago... As a 6 point ( no brows ) I think it would of still scored in the 130's. Anywho, I was invited on the drive by a co-worker and he was the only one I knew. The buck came past me in an elevated blind at 10 yards and stopped broadside. I shot it right in the chest with a 12 gauge shotgun. I could see the impact. The buck bolted out into a field where a guy in the party emptied his gun at it and ran over and claimed it be for I could get down and say something. One of his shots hit it in the foot and he claimed that was the hit I made. I took my friend over and showed him the heavy blood from where I shot it, and the hole in the field where he shot it in the foot, but when we got back over there the guy had thrown it 9in his car and took off.

[DairyLandDeerHunter]

I shot a huge 6 pointer on a deer drive in Waukesha county a few years ago... As a 6 point ( no brows ) I think it would of still scored in the 130's. Anywho, I was invited on the drive by a co-worker and he was the only one I knew. The buck came past me in an elevated blind at 10 yards and stopped broadside. I shot it right in the chest with a 12 gauge shotgun. I could see the impact. The buck bolted out into a field where a guy in the party emptied his gun at it and ran over and claimed it be for I could get down and say something. One of his shots hit it in the foot and he claimed that was the hit I made. I took my friend over and showed him the heavy blood from where I shot it, and the hole in the field where he shot it in the foot, but when we got back over there the guy had thrown it 9in his car and took off.

I'm sorry to hear that Bukmastr, it's disgusting how low people will go to claim a deer. My father unfortunately had a very similar experience as yours. We were hunting an 80 acre piece of private property that a friend of my grandfather's owned. My dad shot a 6 point buck with his revolver, and we were following the blood trail when we came up to a large pile of blood and drag marks leading back to our camp. Turns out the landowner's daughter's boyfriend, who was hunting as a guest this year, claimed the deer as his and had it thrown in the backseat of his car, not even field dressed, and said he shot it even though there was no other shot fired, and my father's .44 magnum's bullet hole was the only one in the deer. He took off before we could really do anything, and we never saw him again. Needless to say, he was never invited back to camp. Just a really disgusting situation, and it still bothers my father and I to this day.

[kellory]

Sounds like someone needs to invent trackable ammo. Or indelible paint on impact.

[Sopchoppy]

While this kind of behavior is totally disgusting, if you don't know who you are dealing with, it's best to "turn the other cheek". These same low-lifes that will steal a deer are the kind that would be just as likely to shoot you or try to run you over if they feel cornered or caught.. Get a license number if possible and let the game warden or sheriff deal with it. Ain't no deer big enough for me to get shot over. They will be held accountable for their actions one day.

[DairyLandDeerHunter]

While this kind of behavior is totally disgusting, if you don't know who you are dealing with, it's best to "turn the other cheek". These same low-lifes that will steal a deer are the kind that would be just as likely to shoot you or try to run you over if they feel cornered or caught.. Get a license number if possible and let the game warden or sheriff deal with it. Ain't no deer big enough for me to get shot over. They will be held accountable for their actions one day.

I totally agree with you. In my case, I attempted to get their license plate number, but it was conveniently off their car. And you're right, they will get theirs some day.

[Bukmastr]

While this kind of behavior is totally disgusting, if you don't know who you are dealing with, it's best to "turn the other cheek". These same low-lifes that will steal a deer are the kind that would be just as likely to shoot you or try to run you over if they feel cornered or caught.. Get a license number if possible and let the game warden or sheriff deal with it. Ain't no deer big enough for me to get shot over. They will be held accountable for their actions one day.

agree 100%... I was invited back with those guys many times... I respectfully declined. Hunting means a lot more than coming home with a buck.

[DairyLandDeerHunter]

While this kind of behavior is totally disgusting, if you don't know who you are dealing with, it's best to "turn the other cheek". These same low-lifes that will steal a deer are the kind that would be just as likely to shoot you or try to run you over if they feel cornered or caught.. Get a license number if possible and let the game warden or sheriff deal with it. Ain't no deer big enough for me to get shot over. They will be held accountable for their actions one day.

agree 100%... I was invited back with those guys many times... I respectfully declined. Hunting means a lot more than coming home with a buck.

You hit the nail on the head right there Bukmastr; hunting is more than just shooting a deer. If your soul purpose of deer hunting, and only reason for doing it I might add, is to just shoot a deer, than you aren't truly experiencing and enjoying the full hunting experience.