I’ve shot several that weren’t wounded at all.
That’s the only thing that bothers me about hunting..
That you might wound an animal and it would scurry away and suffer a long and cruel death.
Kind of an odd question. A wounded deer means someone tried to kill it. Also, how is it possible to determine the extent of the wound of an animal just running by?
Let's just correct that.
So here’s the question though: How Tastey does a deer need to be before you put it down and out of its misery?
When deer are regularly hunted, they are an integral part of many field and forest environments.
If deer are not hunted, they quickly become an unmanageable population of disease-ridden, tick-ridden vermin.
#BambiLivesMatter
On my way to work this morning the car in front of me creamed a big buck pretty well with his crown vic. The buck was on the side of the road, writhing in pain. I almost stopped to finish him off with my .380 but decided against it. There were plenty of people stopping. I probably had the smallest gun there.
I mean, it IS rural Kentucky. :)
The only 8-point buck I ever got was wounded. Wasn’t much of a decision.
Well, first you do a triage to see how wounded the deer is...
The problem with civilization is it always leads to a population of navel gazers. Hunger and deprivation have a way of sharpening the mind.
The biggest problem regarding shooting wounded deer is sneaking a gun into the emergency room.
If in season, yes.
5.56mm
I have found multiple dead deer with arrows in locations that appear to be non-life threatening.......they died from infections related to those wounds.
I confirmed this by cutting several open or seeing the heavy infection around the wound area.
A deer with any wound should be dispatched and the meat harvested (if the meat is good).
Put it down. No sense dealing with festering wounds and infections. The insects and critters would come calling and it’s a deer...ummm you’d have to trap it somehow, then drive it to the vet and it YOUR bill. Venison for din-din is much simpler
I go hunting. I no longer persue. I set myself behind the barn or by the pond as my grown kids scour the very steep hillsides. My friend and landowner goes up in his tree stand around 400 yards straight up the hill. He is a lousey shot and often misses or wounds. 2 years ago I heard a shot from his area. Around 10 minutes later I got up and slowly walked about. I came upon a trail and saw a doe sitting down there. It saw me and got up. I had no need to shoot a deer as my kids usually fill the freezer. But something was wrong. This doe had a big hole in its belly and was limping. I quickly put it out of its misery. Gutted it and hung it from a tree. About two hours later my friend and benefactor came off the mountain for lunch. I told him I got your deer. He didn’t understand. “You shot?” I asked. “Yeah”. “You miss?” “Not sure....it was only 30 feet away but I didn’t find blood ”. “Well it’s hanging from the tree “
This is a shame. I shoot to kill. But it’s his land. I gave him’his’ deer. Good way to keep being able to use his land.
As a former cop, I had a few calls for deer that had been hit by cars and survived. Difficult situation. A “mortal” wound can sometimes be a judgment call. A broken leg, a severe gash likely to get infected (after all, if the deer is immobile enough to be there when I rolled up in my squad car), the animal in obvious intense pain. I’d observe long enough to establish a comfort level and then make a decision. If I had to, I’d call dispatch and advise that I was about to put the animal down (in case they received calls from residents of gun-fire being heard).
Of course. If not, what is hunting about?
Depends what the bag limit is and if I feel like spending the next three hours processing venison.
Since moving to rural Pennsylvania I have seen at least a dozen deer with broken legs and ankles (not from hunting, but probably traffic accidents or fences). I considered putting them out of their misery but let nature take it’s course. In many cases the deer get along just fine on 3 legs after a couple of weeks.
I have seen whitetails run for a quarter mile after being shot through the lungs.
Hardest animal to kill I have ever seen.
A better question is would you shoot a deer that was horribly deformed, malformed, or obviously facing a horrible death by disease?
Deer are very prone to such things, and you do not want to do a Google image search for it, unless you want to get grossed out.