Someone took hubby's deer

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We have never had this happen and wonder if others experience this. On Saturday (the last day of PA achery hunting) my husband finally got a deer. He wanted for it to settle down so he could track it. When my husband and my son trailed to deer, another person entered our posted land and took the dead deer as their own! The deer was hunted on our property, died on our property and never left our property. Beyond the fact that we are now without the meat that it would have provided - I can't believe that the trespasser would be so bold. They even took the time to try to hide the "evidence" of the their theft. Trying to get my husband to believe that it was not a mortal shot or he just would never find it.

While the state police did file a report and have some registration numbers to check up on, the trooper stated that it has become much more common that people no longer respect "private" land anymore.

Just boggles the mind.

-- Chris in PA (CLMngs@aol.com), November 12, 2001

Answers

whoever did it,, saw an oppurtunity,, and took,, problable hunting on your property,, or right next too,, when the deer came up

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 12, 2001.

another thought,, I have heard of people stealing hanging deer,, at "buck pole" contests,, or right from the back yard

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), November 12, 2001.

Sorry this happended to your family; we have had people cross the fence at our ranch before, and have caught several of them in the act. Claims to following wounded deer (where is the blood trail or tracks?), are pretty quickly discounted. Some are pretty hardheaded about jumping the fence; when we catch these ones, we act appropriately.

According to one of our leasers I talked to yesterday, in Texas, trespassing and hunting on property you do not have permission to be on is now a FELONY. If you are caught, confiscation of vehicle and big fine is the penalty. Plus, you lose any right to own ANY GUN EVER AGAIN, because no felons are permitted to own a gun. I don't know if this is true, but a national law like this sure would make anyone think twice about trespassing.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), November 12, 2001.


I know it's no consolation, but it is archery season here in Ohio and West Virginia till January 2, 2002. Want to come hunt our huge, well fed deer, we have 50 acres of hayfield that they feed on, and we don't mind folks hunting with bow and arrows at all.

You're right about it not being a mortal shot, or it wouldn't have wandered so far out of sight. A clean, good kill would not have gone more than 50 yards or so.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), November 12, 2001.


My son was hunting on us yesterday, when he saw a deer run across in front of him. He watched it, and it laid down and died. We called the game commision. They said to wait and see if anyone showed up trailing it. If not, we were just supposed to leave it alone. He said it wouldn't go to waste as the coyotes would eat it. No one ever came to ask if they could go in to look for it, and we didn't know which neighbor it came off of, so we left it. I hated to let the meat go to waste, but that is what we were told to do.

-- Winona in MO (thompsonwin45@hotmail.com), November 12, 2001.


I had someone shoot one with a arrow and get in his truck and leave. The deer came out to the road about 30 foot from where he parked the truck and fell dead. I am like the other person come get some of these. We had 11 car/deer accidents in the local paper today. I think the DNR should let people kill them down. They can up the turkey population for the hunters. We have never had a turkey/car accident in the paper yet.

-- Mel Kelly (melkelly@webtv.net), November 12, 2001.

I breifly thought this just might be a deer story. I have seen trully mortally wounded deer do some strange things (run 200 plus yards with no heart or lungs). I have also seen deer that were not mortally wounded run a ways, lie down, then get back up again. I would think that if ther was no drag trail (pretty obvious and hard to disguise- that deer wasnt 'taken' but really went off on his own. Now, last year I got a big doe a ways down in the river bottom. I field dressed it and, it being too heavy for my scrawny 135 lbs, I went to get my wife to help. I came back and the deer was gone! I had left my tag on it and everything! SO I started trailing the drag trail, and found that deer several hunderd yards off. My dog was standing guard over that deer- he had obviously been in a fight. What had happened was this: some other dogs had found that deer within the 25 minutes it took me to go home and drive back, and started dragging it off. My dog, who had been out with me when I shot that deer (not running the deer, just sitting with me) had run down through the woods faster than I could drive back, got in a fight with the other dogs defending "his" deer. Might dogs be the culprits? A big dog could drag a deer along ways. If it hadnt been for my dogs defense, I might not have found that deer. If it was a trespasser, you might reguard it as this: if you were out in the woods and had a dying deer come running up and land on your lap, the last day of deer season, would you take it home? Mighty tempting, I'd say. Especially if you waited a while and no one showed up to claim it. Or, if the guy who stole this deer (if thats what happened) was trully hard up enough to go and steal a deer off someone elses land, well knowing who shot it and that that man would want it, he obviously desperately needs that deer- to feed his family, perhaps. Or hes just a rotten jerk who is greedy and wants to impress his buddies because he cant hunt worth a durn.

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), November 12, 2001.

Chris, didn't you know that as long as you have a hunting license you can hunt where ever you want to in Pennsylvania?!!? Just kidding, but I think alot of hunters think that way. You would think that people would ask permission but most don't. My favorite excuse . . . "Well I've hunted here since I was a kid". I do let neighbors & friends hunt on my property, but people I don't know - I don't think so. One guy at work is always bugging me about hunting on my property. The next time he asks my answer will be this . . . "Just pay the property taxes, and you can hunt all you want"!

-- Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania (kirklbb@penn.com), November 17, 2001.

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