On Hogs, Deer, Dead Cows and Responsibikity

SC-Texas

Texas Gun Trust
"AND THE NO.1 THING A HOG HUNTER DOESN'T WANT TO find after shooting at a hog?" A DEAD COW!

We found one. It had been dead for a day. It was bloated, stiff, starting to smell of decay. The buzzards had started on it. It had a bullet hole in its stomach.

The people who shot it didn't bother to let the Landiwner know, assuming they werer even aware of what they did. They left it to give me a heart attack!

I took pictures and texted them to the landowner. I obviously did not want to get blamed in any way for killing someone's cow.

Even if you know that you did not shoot it, when you walk up and find a dead cow in the thermal and the I2, it certainly creates moments of self-doubt and a review of everything you just did and identified as a target.

In this case, some shooters had been using the range the day before. Apparently one of them managed to miss the berm. Either by shooting over it, or under and skipping around over the berm. Or maybe the cows where on the Range and they thought they were shooting around them. We do not know.

The fact is, it does not matter. Someone shooting on the Range did not or was not aware of where their bullets were going.

As a shooter, we are responsible for ensuring that our projectiles do not leave the range. When hunting, we are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the area behind the Target animal is clear of friendly animals.

Too many times I see people shooting over water and skipping rounds off of the water not realizing that they are landing Somewhere over the berm and out of the range property. I've also seen people shoot over the berm.

As a Hog Hunter, I often hunt in mixed environments. I am always finding deer with the Hogs. I often I'm hunting in areas that have cattle and caps mixed in with the Hogs and the deer. It is very easy to get focused on the pegs and not adequately assess the environment that is down range of the pigs. If a projectile fully penetrates the pig it will be going somewhere. You certainly do not want it to go into a cow or deer behind the pig.

Target identification is also a problem. Hogs, deer and cows that are laying down or feeding with thier heads down, often look a lot alike when you first see them in the night vision or thermal units. We are legally responsible for knowing what are Target's are and probably identifying them.

Legally, we are responsible for the damage of those projectiles do. We as the shooting Community must keep that in mind while we are practicing our Sport and exercising our 2nd Amendment rights.

Let's face it, we do not want to be this guy who is getting a call from the landowner and a bill for a dead cow. Not only is it expensive, but you almost certainly will not be invited back to shoot and hunt on the landowners property.
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FrankT

Destin FL
LSB TURKEY BUZZARD PRESERVATION SOCIETY
LoneStarBoars Supporter
what a shame and her suffering too, how did the landowner act and say?
 

OneK

LSB Active Member
Staff member
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My biggest fear.
 
D

djones

Guest
that's exactly why OinK and i don't shoot the all copper varieties. tried them but the ricochets were too bad. guess it would help if i could hit pork instead of dirt clods. but on the bright side of shooting dirt clods, if a cow ever does get shot, it will be OinK who shot it.
 

fanninland

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Good points SC. Even though accidents & errors can and will happen, we need to be vigilant to minimize them.

Several years ago, prior to my night hunting addiction, I was awakened in middle of night by a panicked call from a couple guys who we had allowed to night hunt on our place to help with an increasing pig problem. They had mistakenly shot both a cow and calf. To their credit they called & offered to pay, but they had got rattled and left in a hurry. I went out early the next morning to discover a pitiful sight and had to put down both animals.

It's easy to get carried away in the thrill of a pig hunt, but I try to always err on the side of caution in target ID, shooting around other animals and justbasic gun safety and muzzle discipline.
 

Hard_ware

Here piggy piggy! Deep Deep S. TX.
Sadly $hit happens, the extra second to ID the target can make all the difference.
Understanding the bullets trajectory helps to prevent unintended collateral damage.
NRA hunters insurance covers something like this from my understanding and it's under $100 yr.
Having the top of the line thermal scope can also help with ID and seeing any objects in the background.
This is something that shooting with a spotlight was a big danger due to limited down range vision.
Could have been worse, especially when bullets fly down range. A child at school on the playground was hit by a bullet that was not stopped by a backstop. The shooters were shooting prone at a target several feet above the ground with a small berm behind it, bullet travel several hundred yards and hit a kid. Area was a brushy area that had been hunted over the years, but was only a few hundred yards away from school, the shooters should have not shot in that direction.

Digging the bullet out should let the shooters know if they shot it, if it is the same type they shoot. Not suggesting ballistics test, but simple match up. If I am shooting all copper and a lead bullet killed the cow, well that's that, wasn't me :p.
 
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437

LSB Active Member
I've passed on so many hogs this summer with 2,500 head on site. Frustrating, but always better to pass and come back again. In normal years the cattle are all together in 1 of 5 sections + a separate bull pen and we just avoid those areas. Then our drought hit and grass was hard to come by and they opened up the entire ranch so they were everywhere.
 

OneK

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Dr. Jones and I both shoot 6.8. Nobody around here does. We always call or text the landowner when we are going to hunt and always tell the game warden if we see anyone else hunting. If we did it we want to pay for it. If someone else did it that's their problem and not ours. Another deal is we like to video all our shots so if there is a problem we can review the video to see if we are to blame. We are very fortunate that all our hunting is in wide open fields so we can see for miles. As Dr. Jones said earlier we don't shoot copper bullets because they are very prone to ricochet. It's just not worth the risk.
 

nonnieselman

LSB Member
SUS VENATOR CLUB
That is sad.. Ive had to put down a few cows for a farmer after they got sick. Then he told me how much money he had in them, pretty expensive critters that is for sure.
I watched 2 hot spots in a large field last night in the thermal. They had cows out the week before but we didn't see any by the gate on the way in so we were not sure what they were. Waited almost 15 minutes and shined the lights out there to try and see a eye reflection. Never seen anything but there were still 2 hot spots in the grass. Finally they got up and they were 2 small does about 550-600 yards away from us. They walked in the taller grass and disappeared.
Ive walked over a mile in some thick thistles before shooting a few hogs one night just to make sure they were not calves. Its a lot of work but the farmer loves us since he knows we will take care of everything and he does not have to worry with 1000 head of cattle out there and expensive equipment everywhere.

I did shoot a armadillar one night and seen the bullet skip and hit a dozer blade. But i knew the blade was not attached to the dozer and we had checked zero on it before with a sharpie and small torch to heat it up. I knew it was 1/2" AR500 steel since we had relined it a couple years ago for him. He called us laughing asking if we had missed a hog and rezero when he seen all the lead splatter on it the next day.
 

SC-Texas

Texas Gun Trust
I tried a video all of my shots. Unfortunately I was changing batteries when the guy was hunting with shot at that pig. Luckily it was very obvious that the cow have been dead for at least a day before we went hunting
 

ScottJ

LSB Member
I'm a farmer and I sometimes have to explain to other people who complain about landowners not letting them hunt. I go over it with my pig hunting friends too. "Don't shoot anything unless you're sure it's a pig. Better to have 100 pigs get away than accidentally shoot a cow. Never shoot at pigs if there's something behind it that would be bad to hit with a bullet... like a house, shed, tractor, cattle off in the distance, a road, etc." Even if there's no fence in the area, that doesn't mean it's not a cow. I got very excited to see what looked like the biggest wild hog I'd ever seen, and my uncle got a 400+ lb one when I was hunting with him. No cattle in the area and it was a crop field without fences. By the time I got within about 200 yards of this huge pig, I could finally see that it was a loose cow about 300 yards away. I'd feel horrible about shooting someone's cow or horse, and pretty bad about hitting a deer. And if it ever does happen, I'll own up to it and pay for it... and then some even though I know I'll probably excommunicated.
 
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