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Ethics Check.....What would you have done????

Critter

Life Member
I know we've talked about it in the past, but I never thought I would ever find myself in a situation such as this one.
This morning I get a call from my mother-in-law telling me that one of our farmer neighbors is coming up to talk to me. I went outside to meet her, and when I saw her I could tell she was very excited about something. She gets out of the car and starts pointing back behind my house. She proceeds to tell me that there are two large bucks locked up on my property, right behind my back yard. I run inside and grab the camcorder and head for the treeline. Sure enough, there are two really nice bucks locked up together slowly making their way through the woods side by side. It looked as if the right side of one and the left side of the other were hooked, allowing the bucks to walk together almost hand in hand like. I got the camera rolling and started to film them. After a short distance they stopped and began to thrash about trying to free themselves. During the fighting, one of the bucks completely flipped the other through the air over himself, fortunately I had the camera still running and caught it on tape. I haven't studied the tape real closely, but it looked like a 160ish ten and a 130-140ish eight. So here was my dilema.......I haven't gun hunted since back in 2000, I didn't have a tag, and I didn't really want to shoot either of these deer with a gun the way they were. I decided to let them be for a bit and see if they separated. I watched them for 15 minutes or so from a distance so as to not stress them out any more than they already were. So......now what do ya do??? I decided go into town and get a tag. I figured if they were still in the same spot after being gone for 20 minutes, that they were probably locked up fairly well and weren't going to separate from each other. I'm not really sure what I would have done if they would would have been in the same spot when I got back, but fortunately for me they were gone. I combed my woods as well as the neighbors to make sure they hadn't just moved down the hill, but they were no where to be found. So, as I sit here writing this, the gunshots seem to be going off everywhere around my house. Hopefully they separated and are hiding out somewhere, I'd sure like to see them next bow-season.
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Don't really know what you could have done with just one buck tag anyway?
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Sounds like they solved your dilemma by leaving before you returned.

Too bad Shredder wasn't around...you could have given him a rope and a chain saw and had some really remarkable footage!!
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Can't wait to see the footage...I assume you had your new camera rolling?
 
I can't honestly say what I would have done. I'd like to believe that I would have tried to find a way to seperate them if they couldn't do it themselves. If nothing else maybe trying to get close enough to break the horns some how or call the DNR to see if they could help. I am pretty sure I would not have killed them unless it was to put them out of their misery. I have never had a deer mounted yet and to me this would be like shooting one that had been caught in a fence in the barn yard, just kind of takes the trophy status away from it for me at least. Hopefully you will have a chance at one of them next year and for now you are extremly lucky to have a video to be proud of and a story to tell, and a future hunt to look forward to.
 
Actually Kent the farmer offered to purchase the other tag, but if it came down to it I would have called the DNR and had them issue a salvage tag. Either way, I'm glad I didn't have to worry about it. The chainsaw thing did cross my mind, but after seeing the spunk left in the two bucks, there's no way I would have attempted it.
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Shredder would have and I would have paid a lot of money to see it...
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I don't know what I would have done either but nature works things out on her own.
 
I would of walked down there with a 12 guage and a load of 4 shot, if you could get them so they were holding steady and you could get close enough, just shoot one of their antlers off, then you wouldnt have to worry about the bucks hearing you in the future
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Here's an update.....the bucks didn't separate. They made their way across the road from my house and the gunners shot the smaller of the two. The larger of the two managed to separate and took off. Bittersweet ending I guess.
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That's my kind of luck, have 2 bucks locked together that can't go anywhere and still end up shooting the smaller one
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That's quite the story. I don't know what else you could have done. Just one of those things I guess. Why did they shoot the smaller of two?
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Here's an update.....the bucks didn't separate. They made their way across the road from my house and the gunners shot the smaller of the two. The larger of the two managed to separate and took off. Bittersweet ending I guess.
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Serves the guy right who shot the smaller buck, I couldn't take advantage of a big buck that way. In my book it's just not fair chase.
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Hope you get a chance at the bigger of the two next season.
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pat yoor self on the back and hold your head high that video is better than shooting them anyday. anybody can shoot a fish in a barrel
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I would have attepted to separate them after a nice dose of Telazol each.......that is just crazy talk about jumping on one...sober at least
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...not saying that after a night at Solon Beef Days I wouldn't attempt it tho. Good call Jamie, that has to make you feel good about not shooting but one question.....you now have a shotgun tag you are going to use in the next day or two?????
 
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Serves the guy right who shot the smaller buck, I couldn't take advantage of a big buck that way. In my book it's just not fair chase.
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Hope you get a chance at the bigger of the two next season.
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That's a great point, I didn't even think about it that way. What a moron. Too bad they both didn't get away unscathed.
 
Just my two cents. I have seen the hero shots in magazines before with the headlines "Hunter Bags Two Bucks With One Shot" or something like that. I always thought about what I would do if I was in that situation. I believe that if they can be seperated than they should be but that is much easier said than done. That said, I think if I found two bucks locked, I would consider shooting them. I realize it is akin to shooting fish in a barrel, and the satisfaction would never be anywhere equal to shooting one under fair chase conditions. The reason I would consider it, and hopefully Shredder can add some of his advice on this, is the physiological changes that happen to whitetails under extreme stress. I have a Bachelors of Science in Zoology and by no means am I claiming to be an expert, but in my studies I have read several articles on trapped and transported deer and the related fatality rates of whitetails. Physical stress can lead to toxic levels of I believe Lactic acid at the cellular level. It is the same compound that causes us muscle cramps after extreme activity. I know mortality on trapped and transported deer sometimes exceeded 50% depending on the duration of containment. I feel that if the deer is extremely stressed and likely to die anyway, it is not so humane to turn it loose and let it go to waste. But I guess if you do get them loose, at least they have a chance, even if it is small. I guess what I would do would depend on my gut feeling of what condition the deer were in when they were found.
 
This might be a strange distinction to make, but for me I think it would depend on how I encountered them. If it happened like your case and someone told me about them and I was able to just walk up and shoot them because they couldnt get away, that would take all of the enjoyment out of it for me.

However, if I was in my stand like any normal day, and those same bucks got locked up and the fight brought them under my stand I think I would feel ok about taking them. I would feel like I had actually hunted and had not just executed them. It's purely an arbitrary distinction to make because the end result would be the same, but it would make a big difference in how I felt about it.

To put it another way, if you were hunting and two large bucks were fighting under your stand, and as you came to full draw they became locked, would you pack up and go home? I dont think I would in that case.

Here is another senario. Your hunting and your target buck comes down the trail and jumps a fence as you come to full draw. Your plan is to shoot when he hits the ground on the other side, but he hooks a back leg in the process. Do you release the arrow or release the deer and go home? I'd shoot him, but not if he was already stuck when I got there. Its a matter of degree.

Either way that had to be a cool thing to witness.
 
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I would have attepted to separate them after a nice dose of Telazol each.......that is just crazy talk about jumping on one...sober at least
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...not saying that after a night at Solon Beef Days I wouldn't attempt it tho. Good call Jamie, that has to make you feel good about not shooting but one question.....you now have a shotgun tag you are going to use in the next day or two?????

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To make a long story short bud......no, I won't be using by tag. The same farmer that approached me initially about the bucks told me how the younger of her two boys would be so dissapointed he didn't get to see the deer. She also told me that he didn't have a gun to use during shotgun season this year since his older brother was hunting at the same time. My slug gun has been collecting dust for quite a while, so I decided to take it over to him and let him use it next year. He's growing up in a similiar situation as myself. His father doesn't hunt, and he doesn't really have anyone to help him out other than his older brother who is off hunting by himself. Thought it would brighten his day and give him something to look forward to next year.
 
Critr.....I don't care what all the rest of the guys say about you.....your a great guy in my book!
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nice move on helping the neighbor kid!

i recieved some pics the other day, of 2 buck locked together. one was thought to be dead, so the landowner, or DNR, took a shotgun, and got close, and blasted off the antlers. the first buck took off, and the alleged dead buck, got up, and fell down a couple time, then fianlly walked off. that is probably what i would have tried, after getting some pics
 
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