Strange things happen!!

[WildRose]

Last year in Colorado something similar happened to us. The last day we were there we flushed 2 small bucks up to where 2 of our hunters were posted. When they cleared the brush one of my buddies shot at the lead buck and though he had missed, but his gun jammed when he went to reload. By the time he cleared the jam and got back on them, he shot the lead buck again and it went down. We all caught up to him, and my dad asked him what the hell he was doing shooting both bucks! Turns out he hit the first buck the first time, but he didn't see it go down when he was clearing the gun. Then he shot the second buck thinking it was still the lead deer.

We talked things over, and rightly called into the local Colorado DOW office. They met us in town, recovered the second deer which we had field gutted, and it was going to be donated to a local food bank. The hunter got a $50 ticket, but was happy he got to keep his deer.

Not to take this too far off on a tangent but... . You last sentence reminded me of my first antelope hunt when I was 13.

We observed at long range a pickup basically push a herd into a corner with tall sheep fencing on both sides. Suddenly over a dozen shots ring out in pretty rapid fire fashion.

We saw what looked like multiple animals down but didn't have good enough glass to be sure just what happened.

As we approached the pickup leaves and we see a father and young son pair we recognize leaving out at high speed.

Get over the hill and find four wounded PH's flopping around bleeding out, one with half it's face blown off and one with most of it's right front leg blown off.

This was in around 74-75 just after NM had reopened PH hunting and the tags were hard as hell to come by and very expensive, if I remember right, at the time it was 250.00 for the license and 250.00 for the tag and we all felt very blessed to get the opportunity.

We of course had a huge dilemma on our hands, as all but one of us already had tagged out but we went ahead and put the animals down.

We left everything as is and immediately got back to the ranch HQ so they could radio (no phone service in the boonies then) for a game warden and when he got there explained it all.

Both went to jail, lost their guns, fined 5000.00 each and the father spent several years in prison. The kid was the shooter (or so it was claimed) and he was using a damned M1 carbine and just lit up the herd and they picked up two of the goats they liked and left the rest.

The GW however simply gave us tickets for the goats (receipts actually) and charged us 50.00 each for them and allowed us to take them without our friend having to use the tag. We donated them to a children's home we knew of near Roswell on the way out.

Sometimes we take a huge risk by doing the right thing as we did in our cases, but it's still the right thing to do and if you don't get a GW who's a complete ***, you get to drive home feeling very good for having done the right thing.

 

[LightfootE]

This EXACT thing happened to my wife but with doe. It was her second year hunting with me. She was set-up about 400 yards from me. I suddenly hear 2 shots, and then two more shots. I was confused at what happened. When I went to go look there were two dead doe. When i talked to her, this is what she described. She shot the first doe, looked through her scope and there it was standing so she shot again thinking she either missed or just wounded it. this time she saw the doe fall...BUT when it fell she realised that right behind it was another doe on the ground kicking and flailing(first doe she didnt realise she shot). At this point both doe were shot through the shoulders but still alive so she immediately shot both again(the second round of two shots I had heard.) Both doe were almost exact same size and shape and must have been traveling together. Fortunately we each had a doe managament permit so all was OK legally speaking. I was actually really proud of her(minus the whole two doe thing haha)...the shot on both deer very tight between many trees about 200 yards away from her through medium dense woods. AND to top it off she was shooting off hand out of a stand. Both doe were hit in shoulder on the first shots. Follow-up shots were right in the boiler maker on both deer. Needless to say she is more confident in her shooting and now if she shoots once, unless she is CERTAIN she missed she will not take a follow up shot. Except to put an animal out if it is already down.

Another funny thing about this story is that, in high school I had a gym teacher who was a hunter. One day we were talking hunting and he told me about a time when he accidentally filled both his tags. His story was nearly identical to what happened to my friend, only he wasn't backpacking and he was by himself.

Yea I guess I'm a good friend, I was still pumped to have two good bucks on the ground, even though I didn't shoot. Once in a lifetime hunting experience for sure. I packed him out and kept the meat, but the horns stay with my friend.

 

[WildRose]

Another funny thing about this story is that, in high school I had a gym teacher who was a hunter. One day we were talking hunting and he told me about a time when he accidentally filled both his tags. His story was nearly identical to what happened to my friend, only he wasn't backpacking and he was by himself.

Yea I guess I'm a good friend, I was still pumped to have two good bucks on the ground, even though I didn't shoot. Once in a lifetime hunting experience for sure. I packed him out and kept the meat, but the horns stay with my friend.

And the memory is a lifetime trophy you get to enjoy.