Am I done?

Yes I could just call he CO and ask, but what’s your opinion:

Shot a Tom this morning with my bow. He ran off and left a tremendous blood trail. Found him laying head down under a brush pile. Took a step towards him after texting a buddy, taking a picture, etc and he jumps up and runs away.

The blood was hard to find after that and at one point it took me 30 minutes to find it again. Then, I found him! Or what was left of him. The coyotes beat me to it. I was no more than 100 yards from that spot and didn’t hear a thing.

So, do I punch my tag for that bird? Legally and ethically.

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ethically?
IMHO, One has to ask themselves; Did any of my actions contribute to the demise of the quarry?

legally?

WishIwasWiser wrote:

Took a step towards him after texting a buddy, taking a picture, etc and he jumps up and runs away.

Depending on the jurisdiction, most regulations call for the tag to be placed on the quarry immediately. Not, “after texting a buddy, taking a picture, etc.”

As much as it sucks, ethically and legally you’re done. Chalk it up as a learning lesson and move on. Dave is right, you’re supposed to tag it immediately.

Congrats on getting a Tom, even if the yotes got to it first.

Yep I agree with you guys. And yes, MN says “tag immediately after taking…” I don’t think that a quick “I found him” text and pic was illegal activity. If I was hunting with someone I would have high fived ‘em before tagging. Same thing.

I just called and registered the bird. I am indeed done until next year…good luck to everyone still hunting this spring!

That is a wild story.

I’m not a hunter, don’t pretend to be one, the whole texting thing has nothing to do with anything that happened here IMO and not to be a factor in this equation. Whether it sat there an extra 10seconds or 10 minutes, fact is you thought it was dead. When you went to go tag it it ran away.

You shot a legal animal, the animal got away and eaten by nature. Not seeing the ethical arguement for claiming what nature already did.

I know guys who’ve shot or stuck a deer and then were unfortunately unable to locate it who continue to hunt and tag another deer. Is there a difference if it’s a turkey? 🤷‍♀️

I wouldn’t have counted it. It got up and ran off in seconds, heck, if you had grabbed it to tag right of way, it probably would still have tried to run off. No different than fish being held for pictures, like walleye out of season on Green Bay. Lot of people would be getting tickets for not being immediately released, or bass tournaments for that mater, that fish for total pounds for the day and weigh more than 5 bass and hold for the camera but aren’t technically released immediately. Do people that bow hunt deer and shoot one that they cant find till the next day, and when they do the coyotes or bears have eaten them substantially up, put their deer tag on them, I doubt it, its the same thing. That’s my view and I’m sticking to it.

I am not a deer hunter but when someone hits a deer and they find it the next day and the coyotes have chewed on it don’t they usually tag it? If I shot a turkey and it escaped and I found shortly later half eaten I would definitely tag it and feel good about doing the right thing and curse my bad luck.

Sharon wrote:

I know guys who’ve shot or stuck a deer and then were unfortunately unable to locate it who continue to hunt and tag another deer. Is there a difference if it’s a turkey? 🤷‍♀️

Sharon, You describe a different set of circumstances than what was described above. To directly answer your question, no difference if the quarry is a deer or a turkey.

Many folks will count a known “hit yet unrecovered animal” against their legal limit, others will not, and continue to hunt.

Yeah you’re done. Your timing was bad but your luck was good. Benefit of doubt always goes to the hunted, not the hunter. It’s a campfire story for the future!

Musky Ed wrote:

Do people that bow hunt deer and shoot one that they cant find till the next day, and when they do the coyotes or bears have eaten them substantially up, put their deer tag on them, I doubt it, its the same thing.

Yes they do, more so than you assume.

Sharon wrote:

I know guys who’ve shot or stuck a deer and then were unfortunately unable to locate it who continue to hunt and tag another deer. Is there a difference if it’s a turkey? 🤷‍♀️

There’s a difference when you are unable to locate the animal you shot versus finding it dead and eaten. In one case, you know 100% that you killed the animal whereas in the other, you don’t have any certainty. If you exhausted all efforts in tracking and retrieving the game but were unable to find it, I’d say that’s a different situation.

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

you know 100% that you killed the animal whereas in the other, you don’t have any certainty.

This is false, you do not know 100% if you killed the animal, who’s to say it wouldn’t have have recovered?

Only thing certain are the coyotes ate it, anything before that is irrelevant.

you know there is a really good chance* that you killed the animal whereas in the other, you don’t have any certainty.

There, fixed it. At the end of the day, it comes down to following the regs and doing what you think is the right thing. In OPs case, I wouldn’t be able to do the mental gymnastics to say I didn’t contribute to killing the animal and I’d call it a season.

Deuces wrote:

Only thing certain are the coyotes ate it, anything before that is irrelevant.

Following your logic, if I let my deer sit long enough after I shoot it that some coyotes come in for a feast, it’s irrelevant that I shot a bullet at it (and I can disregard the blood trail) and I can go shoot another deer? Or what is the magic number of minutes/hours that’s needed to go by between shot and recovery for this to not be ok?

Gitchi Gummi wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mr.Beads wrote:</div>
Only thing certain are the coyotes ate it, anything before that is irrelevant.

Following your logic, if I let my deer sit long enough after I shoot it that some coyotes come in for a feast, it’s irrelevant that I shot a bullet at it (and I can disregard the blood trail) and I can go shoot another deer? Or what is the magic number of minutes/hours that’s needed to go by between shot and recovery for this to not be ok?

My logic applied to the OPs situation. Whatever broad brush stroke you’d like to imply after that go for it, idrc.

We both know a 30second “sweet heck yeah” text is quite a bit different than going off to lunch and coming back in the evening to follow a blood trail.

Do what you think is right.
Gonna hear both sides.
Do what makes you feel is the right thing to do.

I understand where you are coming from, the frustration makes you wonder about stuff.
However, you quite possibly saved thousands of other turkeys and birds of other species from the avian bird flu, so pat yourself on the back for that lol !!

It’s a carcass tag. Was there an intact carcass to tag it to? If not, you still have an unused carcass tag, so your still in the game. IMHO

It is not the 1st time a dead turkey got up and ran away. Technically I do not believe you have to use your tag.

Wow, at first I agreed with the first few posts, but I didn’t look close enough at the pic. There is nothing there to tag. I’m pretty torn here. Technically the bird got up on you while you were letting it sit which would he perfectly acceptable for any other hunting (for this exact reason, you could almost argue if you let it sit longer it wouldn’t gave gotten up) and now you came up on feathers, not a body. Honestly if it were me, I may lean towards still hunting and I like to think of myself as an ethical hunter (but I suppose that’s why ethics is more of an art than a science). And as someone earlier had stated, there’s no carcass to tag so ‘technically’ you dont need to tag out. I know others argue the “tag immediately” but the animal would have gotten up either way.

I’d say go hunt. I knocked one over, similar story, walk over to pick it up and it runs off. It was bluff country in northeast Iowa and I chased it over two ridges and figured he was alive enough to run this far, it’s in God’s hands. I think by tomorrow you’ll be happy to be in the woods again.

I would call the DNR or a CO and explain what occurred. I would be very interested in the state law interpretation.

I would NOT call a CO.

I have “spoke” with about 7 or so MN game wardens over the past five years. Some on the phone, two via email, and a few in person. I have found them to be nice and knowledgeable to printed documents. Interpretations – no way … they are either reluctant, trained not to, or incapable of … I think those that I have spoke with fall in all three.

You choose if you want to say tagged or not. Some outfitters out there state if you wound a bird … it is tagged. You are not bound by that though. Make a decision and live with it.

How do you know that the attacked bird was yours … 100% ??

You find the beard or spurs ?

Had you started reaching into your pocket or pack to get the tag, or sat down and had a drink of water, or had to take a leak, and the Turkey ran off, would any of those scenarios been much different than a victory pic and text? Heck no. If you didn’t see your dead bird and intentionally refrain from tagging it on purpose, then I personally don’t see any issue. That’s bad luck AND a learning experience.

I don’t see this being any different than a wounded deer being put down and tagged by another hunter. Coyotes aren’t required to tag their meals so I don’t see why I would do it for them.

Several years ago I shot a rooster that went down in the middle of the swamp and I couldnt find it. Water was nearly waist deep and I had a young dog. Continued hunting, flushed another rooster shot it and walked back to the truck. Regardless of me taking the first rooster home or not, I considered myself limited out. Its just me, but that seems like the ethical thing to do.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Several years ago I shot a rooster that went down in the middle of the swamp and I couldnt find it. Water was nearly waist deep and I had a young dog. Continued hunting, flushed another rooster shot it and walked back to the truck. Regardless of me taking the first rooster home or not, I considered myself limited out. Its just me, but that seems like the ethical thing to do.

Small game is quite different than big game or a turkey. With big game, the season bag limit is usually one unless you have a bonus tag, and its a concrete one with bucks, bear, and turkeys. With small game, he can legally and ethically go hunting again as many days he wants to as long as the season is open and he’s abiding by the possession limit. With turkeys, the season limit is one. That’s the root of the problem here. I don’t think he would be complaining if he had lost a rooster.

What you describe is different that the situation that the OP is experiencing. You were not able to visually recover that rooster whereas this guy did visually find his turkey. I do quite a bit of pheasant hunting in the fall and if I do not recover a cripple, it is not counted in my bag limit. I know the rule applies for waterfowl, but I am not sure about roosters. Just as a side note, I did not lose a single crippled rooster last fall. I folded up 17 and found all of them. Usually I lose a cripple or two every season though.

gimruis wrote:

Small game is quite different than big game or a turkey. With big game, the season bag limit is usually one unless you have a bonus tag, and its a concrete one with bucks, bear, and turkeys. With small game, he can legally and ethically go hunting again as many days he wants to as long as the season is open and he’s abiding by the possession limit. With turkeys, the season limit is one. That’s the root of the problem here. I don’t think he would be complaining if he had lost a rooster.

What you describe is different that the situation that the OP is experiencing. You were not able to visually recover that rooster whereas this guy did visually find his turkey. I do quite a bit of pheasant hunting in the fall and if I do not recover a cripple, it is not counted in my bag limit. I know the rule applies for waterfowl, but I am not sure about roosters. Just as a side note, I did not lose a single crippled rooster last fall. I folded up 17 and found all of them. Usually I lose a cripple or two every season though.

I agree its different, but I quit for the day as being done. I certainly went the next day. If I was in his exact situation I would have considered myself tagged out for the season. That’s just how I am. That bird would still likely be alive had he not shot it before the coyotes got to it.