So, after some thought my view is that the animal belongs to whomever kills it, with the exception if the "killing shot" was merely a finishing shot on animal that was almost certainly going to die AND would have been recovered without significant difficulty. What do you all think? What etiquette do you abide? How did you resolve the issue if you've been in a similar situation?
I do get what you mean. Just for the sake of discussion, I don't
recognize a "killing shot".
Either the shot was an
incapacitating fatal wound, which I define as the deer is down when hit, or collapses at 50 yards or less, OR it's not such a hit. If it's not, the shot that does put the deer down is the one that has the valid claim.
The other problem is the second hunter in most cases doesn't have the good fortune that your FIL had, and doesn't see the first hunter trying to track the deer. The second hunter sees a deer moving through the second hunter's area. IF it's sprinting, hunter-two likely isn't going to crack-off a round. IF the deer is moving at a slow pace, it's likely looking for a place to lie down and hide, and so..., hunter-two likely isn't going to see the deer is hit and will take a shot. Normally hunter-two doesn't realize the deer has been shot until hunter-two walks up to the animal and sees the second wound...maybe hunter-two remember hearing a previous shot from another hunter. Hunter-one often arrives shortly thereafter IF hunter-one is trying to track the deer he shot....
...which brings us to what is hunter-two to do if he finds "his" deer has been shot prior to his harvesting the animal, and the other deer hunter never arrives?
There are guys out there who give a half-arsed look around for blood, and seeing none say, "I missed", and go back to their stand or go home.
It used to be you had to have permission to collect your game on private property in my state. IF the landowner on the property where your deer went says you can't enter, it was then the landowner's deer. The law was changed a few years back, and the hunter may collect the deer without the landowner's permission, but is not supposed to carry a weapon onto the land. Normally the hunter when faced with a negative landowner simply calls the Game Warden and accompanies the Game Warden in collection of the deer. IF the deer is "gone", by the time they get to the deer, oh well...
I don't want any deer that has been wounded by someone else.
Which is the other consideration.
A deer that has been hit and doesn't go down, or moves more than a short distance, lays down and doesn't pass, is likely to be full of adrenalin when hunter-two takes that shot, and harvests that deer. So
good that hunter-two put the animal out of pain, but
bad as the venison is going to be some of the toughest, oddest tasting stuff that hunter-two has had.
Even if you follow standard procedures and hang the animal until rigor subsides..., that adrenalin over all that time between first and second shot, with the pursuit in between, you don't want that meat.
OH and I was taught that if it was me who was hunter-one, then it's hunter-two's deer, and I should offer to split the cost of butchering for a half of the deer (assuming hunter-two uses a deer cutter) , and not to be angry if hunter-two declines.
LD