slickwilly107 said:

---

Oddity: buck didn't appear old to me. Bottom teeth looked pretty decent. But, it had no upper teeth at all.

---

Look farther back....



And we'll just have to agree to disagree on most of that. Of course it was in distress. It was stuck in a fence. However, you can clearly see from those videos that it's not impossible to free them and the odds are it would have ran out of sight before you could even blink. It's common for deer to get stuck in fences and I've never seen a single one of those videos. I just know that it's pretty common to free deer and figured there were videos on Youtube proving it. It's not about "basing decisions on Youtube videos". It's about making decisions that would benefit the animal the best (you can't say killing it was the "ethical" thing to do if you could have freed it and it ended up surviving just fine, which we will never know now). And I've been with kids before when deer have been trapped in hog traps going absolutely crazy beating themselves up. Simply take the kids somewhere where they can't see if you think they can't handle it for some odd reason or let them watch you free it out of the fence and suddenly become their hero that saved the deer's life.

Looks like you got the legal part whipped. I still think it's a bit of a grey area in this case since the animal was presumably taken by legal means (firearm) while it was still alive. In other words, it wasn't found dead tangled in a fence.

Seems pretty clear on the dispatch vs. possession, though. I never really went through the mental exercise that harvesting a deer is two distinctly different legally defined actions.

There's still some ethical waste of game issues for me too. However, without some kind of rule, it's easy to imagine that suddenly a lot of deer hunting stories would end up truthfully being something like:

"Well, this one here was caught in that there fence so I shot him to put him out of his misery. Wasn't technically "hunting" so I didn't use my tag. That one there I hit with my pickup. You know, "accident". Same damn thing happened to those ten over there too! It's a shame! Still got my five tags, though. Wanna go sit in the blind with me tonight and see if we can't shoot El Muy Grande?"

I'll use this discussion as a lesson to program the Game Warden's phone number into my cell phone.

Ha! Not sure if I have it whipped. I'm a "by the book guy" to a fault, probably. The "mortally wounded" part is a grey area that would potentially be up to the GW's discretion. So, I'm not 100% sure it would be a defense to prosecution in this particular case.

I went ahead and emailed TPWD the hypothetical of ...
"What is the proper procedure when/if a hunter comes across a deer or other game animal caught in a fence?"
The response I got was (surprised with how fast that was)...
"Call the game warden. Cell #s are at TPWD web site under game wardens."
This is what I plan to do.

Side story...
I was out shed hunting my lease and came across a dead and scavenged 8 pt. I thought the antlers would look nice back at camp. So, rather than just taking them and risking a questionable conversation with the GW on the walk back to camp. I called him up and asked if it would be ok to take the head with me. I explained what I saw and sent him a picture. He said thanks a lot for asking and sending the pic... then he told me to go ahead and take the antlers. At that point, I had the documentation on my phone (the texts between me and the GW including the picture) that basically said I had permission to take the head. Our GW is great guy and also an Aggie.

Here's the link, just in case y'all go looking for it. It didn't jump out to me at first, but you can search by county in the drop down menu on the left side of the page.

Texas Game Wardens

Was about to post the same thing haha

FishingAggie said:

---

How about just do what's right and not post it for the world to see?

You know you did the right thing. Why bring it up for anything else ?

---

This was the point I was trying to make.

I agree. I wouldn't waste a game wardens time.
Do the right thing.
I wouldn't have posted it on the internet, but glad OP did because it is a good discussion.

Why not post on this forum? He is not posting his name, county etc. anyone think some warden is going to get a warrant to force Texags to give up his name?

It seems fairly common that folks get citations or at least hassled over internet postings...enough to at least warrant discretion when putting info out on the internet. I've read enough hunting forums to know that some posters have operation game thief on speed dial and will study photos for anything that seems suspicious.

I see nothing illegal in the OP. Texags does not track posters who do not register with stars. Your concern is noted but is a minimum risk.

Sorry for all the grief from some on this board. IMHO, you did the right thing. I would have done the same.

I checked with my source: Assuming the deer was found and shot:

1. On private property with landowner consent;
2. During appropriate season;
3. During appropriate shooting hours;
4. By legal means (centerfire rifle, etc);
5. A legal buck per county rules;
6. And Tagged with valid tag from the appropriate liscensed hunter.

LEGAL kill.

Good Job OP. When in doubt call your local GW, and you'll likely find out they share the same sentiment.

Old Town Ag said:

---

My guess is you'll be getting a call from game warden soon.

---

For the record, I don't give a rat's ass about what you did. My post is a warning to you and others not to post something that is questionably legal unless you want to get a call from the game warden.

Hope I am wrong in this case.

Giddings ....I posted earlier that on or ranch....which we live on...and on our surrounding neighbors ranches, it is not uncommon to find deer hung up in fences. I have never seen one in a high fence unless it was pushed into it. Typically fence builders will put a single strand barb or smooth wire about 4-6 inches above the net wire. This is a death trap for deer jumping fences. If you ever watch how a whitetail jumps a fence you can see how they get caught. We specifically do not put a single top wire above our net wire for this exact reason.
On an average we still find three to four deer a year along our fence lines that are caught. Most of the time they are dead but a lot of times we find them soon enough to try and cut them out and give them a chance. We, through the years, have saved lots of whitetails this way. As I said before...animals are very resilient....we had a whitetail doe that had her front leg blown off.....she survived....... and she lived quite well for multiple years with three legs. She could not jump a fence any longer and we just did not have the heart to shoot her.....we figured if she fought so hard to live we would give her a pass.....she had fawns every year for three years we knew of.
I don't think we can fault the OP at all......most people are not experienced enough to tackle a live deer hung up in a fence and would naturally think the best way is to dispatch them. We deal with it all the time so know what to expect and do....usually takes two people........and a plan. The average guy, who may never encountered the situation before, would naturally think that the deer is toast and the humane thing to do would be to put them out of their misery.......after confirming with a GW.

Gunny456 said:

---

Giddings ....I posted earlier that on or ranch....which we live on...and on our surrounding neighbors ranches, it is not uncommon to find deer hung up in fences. I have never seen one in a high fence unless it was pushed into it. Typically fence builders will put a single strand barb or smooth wire about 4-6 inches above the net wire. This is a death trap for deer jumping fences. If you ever watch how a whitetail jumps a fence you can see how they get caught. We specifically do not put a single top wire above our net wire for this exact reason.
On an average we still find three to four deer a year along our fence lines that are caught. Most of the time they are dead but a lot of times we find them soon enough to try and cut them out and give them a chance. We, through the years, have saved lots of whitetails this way. As I said before...animals are very resilient....we had a whitetail doe that had her front leg blown off.....she survived....... and she lived quite well for multiple years with three legs. She could not jump a fence any longer and we just did not have the heart to shoot her.....we figured if she fought so hard to live we would give her a pass.....she had fawns every year for three years we knew of.
I don't think we can fault the OP at all......most people are not experienced enough to tackle a live deer hung up in a fence and would naturally think the best way is to dispatch them. We deal with it all the time so know what to expect and do....usually takes two people........and a plan. The average guy, who may never encountered the situation before, would naturally think that the deer is toast and the humane thing to do would be to put them out of their misery.......after confirming with a GW.

---

After reading all that I think we agree and are on the same page. And yes, if you have any clue what you are doing, a hung up deer shouldn't be considered a "dead deer". I also agree we shouldn't fault the OP, however, we should all realize that wasn't the "only option". Most people, especially the inexperienced hunters and new landowner type don't realize how resilient animals are and what they can live through. To each his own though. I'm not here to judge.