Neighbor shot one of our yard bucks

[Okanagan]

A few evenings ago, a neighbor who lives some 250 yards from us shot the three point buck I photographed in our cherries last summer.  (photo above) The shooter was on his own land of five acres or more and used a shotgun so all is legal in this area.  All that is fine and fine with me but he did not recover the buck nor even try very hard when it walked off of his land.  He noticed it in his yard after a doe, and got his shotgun, an impromptu shot rather than hunting it.

My son came in all dressed up from a wedding, knocked on my door and asked if I had heard shots.  I hadn’t.  He told me that apparently someone had shot a deer and our neighbor lady had called the cops.  Three guys were standing on the public walking trail behind our house so we went out to ask what was up.

They were looking across some private land where the buck had walked out of sight.  The land owners were gone and no one could get them on the phone.  My son knows them and was pretty sure they would give permission to track the buck, but he was not sure enough to speak for them.  Light was going as dusk came down.

According to the SIL of the shooter, he shot it in the hind end with a copper slug, and that it had left no blood trail.  In response to the lady’s phone call, a sheriff deputy had already come out, confirmed that all was legal and gone.

The buck had headed across the private property toward a creek ravine and the obvious thing to do was to go to a nearby public access point and search up the creek before it got dark.  There is no trail and it is rough going, some wading.  Property boundaries are unclear in the bottom of the ravine, giving plausible permission.  Nobody seemed interested and my instinct to offer help was getting warning signals to walk away.  My son told me the same a bit later.  His gut said, “Stay out of this.” 

Mid-day the next day the shooter approached the land owners about trailing the buck, got permission and then did not go look for it.  The land owners are a bit ticked at the guy, not because he shot the buck but because he made so little effort to recover it.

   

[nastygunz]

WTH did he shoot it for then?...did it attack him?..

[FinsnFur]

Yeah it must have attacked him. He had to take defensive action right?
Sounds like somebody just playing with the gun plinking around the yard. Didn't want to deer hunt... didn't want the deer. But it was a live target. Lucky it wasn't the dog or the horse.


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[nastygunz]

 

[KySongDog]

Is there a wanton waste law in your state? Looks like he may have violated it.