How’s this for a headline? "Two injured in melee over deer carcass."
It’s sad but true to report that the Pocono Record ran that headline Oct. 9 here. The two individuals injured were, unfortunately, hunters.
According to the article, a hunter shot a deer and tracked it onto private property. The landowner did not allow the hunter onto the property, claiming he had actually shot the deer earlier.
This scenario isn’t uncommon and usually ends amicably. The difference here was the escalation into life-threatening injuries. Instead of coming to an agreement or calling a game warden, they turned to violence.
Is a deer worth nearly killing a person over? No. But the heat of the moment can spark any number of irrational decisions. Now someone is in a hospital bed instead of a deer stand.
How have you handled these situations? What’s the best way both parties can come to agreement about a wounded deer on private property?
Definitely call the the game warden if they won’t let you on their property. One, you killed it so your tag needs to be used. Two, no sense letting a deer go to waste. Three, it’s illegal to possess a deer carcass you didn’t kill. The deer needs to be obtained…luckily NH law is behind that philosophy.
they might own the land but they dont own the deer call the game commission. 99percent of them are on the hunters side when it comes to a picky landowner
We had a similar incident here when a wounded deer jump our fence onto my neighbor’s farm. We had tracked it until the fence line and immediately went to the neighbor’s house to ask permission to retrieve the deer before crossing. He unfortunately refused us permission and the deer was never retrieved. He had his reasons and we respected them.
In IL, you have to have permission to retrieve deer on private land so unfortunately the private land owner may be within the law.
To me it is not a moral decision by the landowner but it is not worth this kind of violence.
come on guys… we as hunters do not need more ”amo" against us from the anti hunting fanatics. NO TRESPASSING. NO FIGHTING.