Deer on an elk hunt

A doe showed herself while hunting elk.




Apologies to the author of the the ‘Elk on a deer hunt’ thread; his story reminded me to share this ‘Deer on an elk hunt’ story from about a week ago. Not as happy an ending here. First rifle season in Colorado is elk-only.

Two guys had shot this doe and left it lay. My buddies had essentially seen the shot, and then witnessed the two come up to the doe and discuss how to proceed. My buddies moved on for a while assuming they would dress it and go find the warden, take their lumps, etc. After circling back to the area about an hour later the doe was still laying there, and nothing had been done.

After rounding us up we dressed and quartered it and hauled it out. The local horse-packer has good contact with the warden so we left a note for him and met up with him the next day.

Unfortunately we couldn’t find these guys again in the camping areas – they had probably high-tailed it - and so no legal consequences for them – only moral and ethical. The warden gave my friends the meat though.

This doe had basically followed a spike elk into the clearing and so we think these guys assumed it was a cow.

Frustrating enough to not have the skills to know the difference between a doe and a cow, but then to not take that care of the meat, and finally to not take responsibility for it on top of it all.

It's sad they couldn't take any responsibility. Good job to you and your friends for taking care of it!

Wow, that really sucks that they shot her and left her. Scary that someone would mistake her for a cow elk. Glad you guys were able to make sure she didn't turn into coyote food.

Sad to say but I bet that happens more than we know.

It does happen way to much and it makes me sick. Last year I found a small doe laying about 10 yards into a small bean field that had been shot in the front leg and it was broken. You could see where it had been struggling in the field and was left there and died. I called the dnr and the game wardens to report it. What was worse than the person who did it is that no one seemed to care. If I knew how long it had been there I would have tagged it and kept it. This was on public land and everyone is supposed to sign in when hunting.