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Late recovery

Shot an 8 point on the 23rd. He was quartering to more than I thought and I caught him a little far back. Took me 2 days to find him but coyotes had already taken much of his left side. I promptly tagged and registered him thinking that to be the ethical thing to do, despite the spoilage. Some buddies said I should have left it and that it „doesn’t count“ I was proud I finally found him and will have a nice European to show for it. What is everyone‘s opinion on this?

Absolutely made the right decision.

Absolutely, absolutely the right thing to do!

You are a good man!

Great job! Get new friends...:)

Good job

You definitely did the right thing.

I had somewhat the same thing happen in 2015 on a west MI 8 point.......shot was a bit high and back. Knew it was fatal but less than ideal so I backed out when I climbed down....no blood trailing whatsoever. I happened to cross paths with an old friend who was starting to train a blood trailing dog and offered to come help the next morning. We searched for hours with the young dog dragging us to the east end of the property and off it into a huge chest-high grass field. Reluctantly we called it and I left very uneasy.....knowing the buck was down. The following weekend my son-in-law was up from FL to hunt with me and texted that he smelled a bad odor when the wind blew from the north. So when we got down, we literally followed our noses to the dead and decomposed buck. While bummed about the loss of meat, I recovered the head for a euro mount and likewise used one of my combo tags. Some commented it was a waste of a tag, but I did not agree and felt it was the honorable thing to do. Kudos....OP

Definitely something of a Judgement Call, but I’ve got to say that I admire your judgement.

And of course in some states, you do NOT want to be found in possession of a rack if you don’t have a tag to show for it.

Now THAT is what hunting "ethics" are! Good on ya..........

You recovered it so you should tag it. If you never found it, then don't punch your tag. But, you found it so that means you tag it.

Thanks gang, I feel better! What’s bizarre is I spoke with DNR and they said I wouldn’t be legally obligated to tag it. I guess it’s an ethics trumps law thing.

A great example of what ethics are about !

Ethics are almost ALWAYS a higher standard than required by law...

But then, “Legal” is just the lowest standard which society will tolerate before imposing fines and/or jail time.

I’m not trying to teach my boys to be “law-abiding” citizens, because I want BETTER than that for them.

Ive called in 1/2 eaten does the next day..

You did the right thing

Congratulations! Sorry for the lose of meat but you die what was right.

In NY state ,if you want to claim the horns you have to tag.Congrats,you did the right thing.

As a new hunter I'm curious to what happened during the recovery that allowed two days to find it? Any lessons learned? Would you do anything differently?

Ethics are what we do when nobody is watching. Good job.

I made the same decisions once... would do it again in a heartbeat. I say good call on your part.

Get new buddies

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