Girl shoots elk thinking it was a deer

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — She saw the antlers and a big brown body in the bushes.
And with one shot from her rifle Saturday, Abby Wilson, 14, killed what she thought was a very large white-tailed buck.

It wasn't. It was an elk.

"She called her dad, who was hunting nearby, and her dad realized it was an elk," said Tom Strother, protection regional supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation. "The dad called our agent in Boone County, Adam Doerhoff, and said, 'We think we just shot an elk.'"

Doerhoff said he was surprised to get that call and thought it probably wasn't an elk, noting that animal misidentifications are very common.

Click to expand...

Strother said the elk that Abby shot was more than 200 miles away from that Peck Ranch herd, in an area between Hallsville and Centralia.

Click to expand...

CodyCass said:

I think this is a perfect example of a hunter who probably wasn’t ready to be alone. I think that very topic was raised recently on this forum.

Click to expand...

tjones said:

She may not know what an elk looks like but she sure should know what a whitetail looks like. And that isn't one.

Click to expand...

noharleyyet said:

..sorta like the difference between a brow and a branch....one isn't the other.

Click to expand...

tjones said:

So if I see a ram in a unit with no sheep season I can shoot?

Click to expand...

TRS_Montana said:

If my situation is going to be brought in for comparison on this subject, I will note that I knew I was shooting at a branched spike. My mistake was, in a lapse of cognitive function, I was convinced the regs required the bull to have a branch, not a brow.

As I'm apparently the current forum expert on the subject of misidentified targets, I will say that there are plenty of assumptions being made on this thread by a lot of people who were not present during the event. When we read a story like this, it is impossible to separate ourselves from the personal biases that are introduced through past experiences, stories, etc., and those of us who have not encountered a difficult situation or made a similar mistake have a, generally, hard time relating to the possibility that something like this could happen.

I don't know this girl or her dad, so I can't speak to the integrity of either. What I do know is that the best of people make mistakes. I always find it peculiarly enlightening to typical human psychology when people are presented a situation through a third party and consider themselves better poised to pass judgment than the authorities directly involved. The animal was confiscated and the state has not yet decided that further action is required. In my mind, the dad did the right thing, the girl learned a valuable lesson, and both have provided a handful of hunttalkers a chance to climb upon the peaks of wisdom by displaying the purest, self-perceived ethical code they can sculpt with a keyboard.

Click to expand...

Southern Elk said:

If there's no elk season, she did nothing wrong. There was no law saying she couldn't shoot it. It most likely escaped from captivity. Those animals are fair game. I know several instances in my home state of MS where people have shot exotic animals that escaped game farms.

Click to expand...

CodyCass said:

"There is no elk season in Missouri, so free ranging elk are protected," said Tom Strother, an MDC Protection Regional Supervisor. "It is a Wildlife Code violation to shoot a free ranging elk as there are no provisions that outline a hunting season like there is for white-tailed deer."

Not trying to pull a “gotcha”, just want to make it clear that elk are protected in MO even though there is not a season. Again I reiterate my position that accidents happen, nobody is perfect. I think this is a great learning experience and hopefully folks view it as such.

Click to expand...

schmalts said:

I can agree with you. Well said. I may have been harsh on my previous comment but I can't help but see this as one step closer to shooting at something in the bushes moving around. But if you can't I'd an elk from a deer, what about a horse, or llama? She wasn't ready to be alone hunting yet if you can't tell the difference. More blame to the father on this one.

Click to expand...

Southern Elk said:

Thank you for pointing that out. I missed that part and my argument is not valid. I do wonder if it was free range or escaped from an enclosure and whether or not that affects the legality in any way?

Click to expand...

TRS_Montana said:

If my situation is going to be brought in for comparison on this subject, I will note that I knew I was shooting at a branched spike. My mistake was, in a lapse of cognitive function, I was convinced the regs required the bull to have a branch, not a brow.

As I'm apparently the current forum expert on the subject of misidentified targets, I will say that there are plenty of assumptions being made on this thread by a lot of people who were not present during the event. When we read a story like this, it is impossible to separate ourselves from the personal biases that are introduced through past experiences, stories, etc., and those of us who have not encountered a difficult situation or made a similar mistake have a, generally, hard time relating to the possibility that something like this could happen.

I don't know this girl or her dad, so I can't speak to the integrity of either. What I do know is that the best of people make mistakes. I always find it peculiarly enlightening to typical human psychology when people are presented a situation through a third party and consider themselves better poised to pass judgment than the authorities directly involved. The animal was confiscated and the state has not yet decided that further action is required. In my mind, the dad did the right thing, the girl learned a valuable lesson, and both have provided a handful of hunttalkers a chance to climb upon the peaks of wisdom by displaying the purest, self-perceived ethical code they can sculpt with a keyboard.

Click to expand...

Southern Elk said:

Thank you for pointing that out. I missed that part and my argument is not valid. I do wonder if it was free range or escaped from an enclosure and whether or not that affects the legality in any way?

Click to expand...

7mm08mo said:

If I understand our laws here in Missouri right which I believe I do, the code book states if there is not a prescribed season, or in other words no open season at any point in the year then they are illegal to take.

Click to expand...

noharleyyet said:

Sorry you took it that way, I should have commented on the commendable aspects (of both outcomes) and been more expansive of the differences in tone the related threads contained. I can see where you would take umbrage, my apologies.

Click to expand...

LCH said:

Didn't the dad put it up on Facebook? Poor decision to leave her alone, and then another to publicize it. Can't fault a 14 year old girl, left alone, for not knowing.

Adults frequently come into my house and want to know what kind of animal my pronghorn is..

Click to expand...