who has rights to it?

[D-Rock425]

If one guy shoots an elk and it runs over a hill and right to another guy and he shoots and drops it then the other guy comes to clam it who has legal rights to claim it.

[Curly]

I've heard that legally, whoever gets to it first and places his tag on it.  That said, if I shot and finished a bull that another hunter had shot, I'd let the guy have it.

[Tman]

Although its unethical IMHO. Legally,The guy that killed it. How was the second person to know that the animal was wounded at all, and not just running after someone had missed?  This is what happens when hunting in an area with too many people. (ie: Most of Washington)

[Bob33]

Legally,The guy that killed it.

The problem can be determining who that is.  If one hunter shoots an elk in the heart, and it ran 50 yards and in its last two seconds of life another hunter shot it in the heart, who killed it?

[Tman]

Legally,The guy that killed it.

The problem can be determining who that is.  If one hunter shoots an elk in the heart, and it ran 50 yards and in its last two seconds of life another hunter shot it in the heart, who killed it?

I completely agree.  I didn't say it was right, just the way it is.  Would definitely be a bummer to end up this situation.

[bobcat]

If the first shot was a fatal shot, the first hunter should get the elk. If it was only a superficial wound, then the guy who put the second shot in it and killed it should get the elk. Just my opinion, not necessarily the law.

[BOWHUNTER45]

I've heard that legally, whoever gets to it first and places his tag on it.  That said, if I shot and finished a bull that another hunter had shot, I'd let the guy have it.

  I have done that a few times when I was a kid growing up in P.A  but when you can listen to gun fire for miles opening morning and a million hunters in the woods then I can see this happening but out here I can not because I would not be anywhere near other hunters ,, Heck this deer season I never saw one hunter in the woods ...That was sweet 

[MIKEXRAY]

I don't know what the legal answer is,  I lean towards whom ever dropped it. If an animal is still moving ( walking or running ) and a hunter shoots & kills it, I think it should be the second guys always.        That being said if I was the second shooter and the first shot hunter came along, I would probably feel sorry for him and offer the animal up.  Mike

[GoldTip]

This happened to me on a cow hunt out of Dayton.  Walking a gated road, heard the elk coming to the road.  Cow stepped out and I hammered her behind front shoulder, she takes off like a shot and doesn't take 10 jumps when I hear BOOM right over my shoulder, scared the poop outta me. Another guy was walking between upper road and dropping down to my road when he hears my shot and see's a running cow and takes his shot.  He asks if I hit and I say yes, I ask him and he says yes. $hit.  Ok, follow it up, one bullet hole, a through and through, we both claim we were holding behind shoulder.  I'm a bit pissed cuz I know damn well I hit it standing broadside at 70 yards, but I kept my cool, ande the guy was pretty nice as well.  Oh well, whatta ya do.  Flipped a coin, I won.  Like to believe that Karma controlled that coin and knew I was the correct owner of that elk.

Now if that elk had two holes in it, I would have told the other guy to pound sand and it was ABSOLUTELY my elk, as we both know who hit it first.

[longashes]

I've seen some heated arguments over downed game in this "field scenario". Not a good place to be with adrenaline flowing and loaded guns. I think I would yield to the original shooter especially if he was in active pursuit.   

[Hyde]

This is a difficult situation.  There is usually a logical approach, but not everyone is on the same page in as far as logic goes.  I think it boils down to one party yielding, or not.  In the "not" scenario, it becomes the property of whoever is bigger.  Example:  In elk season one year, my friend heard a shot, and a raghorn bull came trotting over the hill towards him.  He quickly dropped the elk with a neck shot at about 50 yards.  As he was getting ready to gut the elk, 3 guys came huffing and puffing over the rise, screaming for him to stay away from their elk.  One of them had shot the elk in a front leg.  Their theory was that they drew first blood.  My friend (who is quite the scrapper himself) realized quickly that there was no way he was going to win the argument with them, and being outnumber by 3 pissed off guys, he yielded.  Any one of those guys would have been no match for my friend, but 3 of them made it out of the question.  Even at that, are you really going to roll around on the ground fighting someone over an elk or deer?  Or worse yet, point threaten them with your weapon?  My friend tried to get a GW involved, but he couldn't get anyone out there in a timely fashion, so he dropped it.  (This was years before cell phones)

[TheHunt]

Tman has the correct answer.  This happens more in Archery then modern unless they use a smaller cal rifle.  But the last person to hit it gets it.  This is the reason why people say anchor the animal by hitting the front shoulder.

[TG509hunter]

This happened to me on Sunday morning.  I shot a spike bull (bad shot).  I ended up shooting back legs off.  The bull then went down the canyon, sliding, rolling and trying to stand up.  Basically, he was not going to go to far until I caught up to him.  I worked my way down the canyon threw the timber and could finally here the spike breaking threw the timber and making all kinds of noise.  As I got closer (within 100 yards) I hear a KAABOOOOM!!! Another hunter (2 guys) had walked up on the spike laying down, shot him in the head and claimed it was theirs.  They even admitted I was the first one that shot him.  Now the spike wasn't going to get away from me, I would have eventually found him when get got to the bottom, but I didn't make the "killing" shot.  Long story short, there was two of them and one of me, so I ended up walking out of the canyon with just a picture of the spike.  Oh well ....... 

[CoryTDF]

We have always done whoever drew first blood. However, that is with friends and family. I guess it depends on where it's hit. If it was a grazing shot and the animal would not have died from it then I say it's yours.

[vandeman17]

I know of a guy that got killed over this scenario. He shot a bull and had a confrontation with another "hunter" who claimed he shot it and it was his elk. Long story short, the argument esculated and the one gentleman was shot, killed and left out there only to be found a few days later. This was back in the 90's but goes to show you that in the grand scheme of things, it really isn't worth it even if you know 100% you are the only that killed the animal.