mercy kill


Tim Andrus

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Today was NYs gun opener ...skunked in the am back in stand by 2pm ...in 40 minutes I saw 3 bucks (half rack 8pt,6pt and 4 pt) then right at the end I heard something makinga bunch of racket ...a button buck was coming trying to walk but then its front end would go down and it snowplowed the leaves as it tried to walk. I knew it wouldnt make it with the coyotes and all so I ended it with my TC Encore .. Couldnt find any hole except mine so when i skinned him I found what appeared to be a a small caliber hole in the shoulder. I hadnt heard any shots tonight so Im thinking it was shot in the am with handgun or last night with .22.. Couldnt leave the animal like that and have coyotes kill it So looks like some young venison in the freezer..

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I had a similiar instance a few years ago on the opener of our rifle season...I had plans to wait on a nice buck but ended up having to take a button buck that had been wounded. Same thing...I knew it was suffering and wouldn't go on much farther, so I took it.

You did the right thing, and you have some good, tender venison to boot.

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when i skinned him I found what appeared to be a a small caliber hole in the shoulder. I hadnt heard any shots tonight so Im thinking it was shot in the am with handgun or last night with .22.. Couldnt leave the animal like that and have coyotes kill it So looks like some young venison in the freezer..

Interesting thing about laws in NYS rifle areas is that there is no legal minimum caliber specified in the law, except that rimfire ammo is illegal deer ammo. That means that something like a .22 hornet would be perfectly legal. Pretty goofy eh? So, if rifles are legal deer hunting weapons in your county, that deer may have been shot with a completely legal but totally inappropriate weapon.

Doc

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I shot a 10pt a few years ago and three days later I had an encounter with antoher 1o pt.The bucks were about the same size 140inches but this one was limping real bad on his left front leg. I almost shot him but thought what if he could heal. I was sick about it because the coyotes are bad here but I saw him two weeks later and he was fine. He was killed two years later and scored in the 170's. I lost alot of sleep over that deer but the guy next door was real happy with it. Its best to just put them down but in this case I think he just sprained his knee.

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You did the right thing for sure Tim.

Interesting thing about laws in NYS rifle areas is that there is no legal minimum caliber specified in the law, except that rimfire ammo is illegal deer ammo. That means that something like a .22 hornet would be perfectly legal. Pretty goofy eh? So, if rifles are legal deer hunting weapons in your county, that deer may have been shot with a completely legal but totally inappropriate weapon.

Doc

Tennessee adopted a similar law here a few years back allowing any centerfire to be used during our gun season. Regs used to be a min of .24 caliber, wish they would have stayed with that.

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