Missouri girl, 14, got her first deer, or so she thought!

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I'm glad they didn't arrest the young lady, confiscate her rifle, and take her to jail. I could see that happening in certain parts of the country.
 
"The meat might be donated to a needy family..."

I'm all for sharing meat with those in need, but how about letting the girl's family have first crack at it?

I have to admit, had it been my kid, we would have done phone reporting for a deer and that sucker would be in the freezer. :)
 
You got to give them credit for going by the book.
Guess that elk hitched a ride on a freight train.
 
Thats pretty awesome
As for helping out the needy - also awesome.
 
Let me be the Debbie Downer here..... She should have been prosecuted just like any other hunter that shot an animal for which there is no open season. What would they do to me if I had done that?? My butt would have been under the jail with everything but my BVD's confiscated.
She obviously didn't "pass" hunter safety because she couldn't identify her target species. What if a domestic cow (Bessie) had come wandering by, shoot it too??? It has antlers and a big brown body, but it's not a deer either......
 
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I give them credit for calling the game warden but the kid has no business hunting alone if she can't tell the difference between an elk and a deer. Granted my dad started taking me hunting at a very young age but by 10 I could tell the difference between duck species which I would think is harder than deer vs elk.
 
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I give them credit for calling the game warden but the kid has no business hunting alone if she can't tell the difference between an elk and a deer. Granted my dad started taking me hunting at a very young age but by 10 I could tell the difference between duck species which I would think is harder than deer vs elk.


I can easily see how someone who is new to hunting could think an elk is a deer when they are not somewhere where one would expect to see an elk. Especially when it is an elk as small as the one pictured.
 
I am glad that they reported the kill to the game warden. Its the right thing to do. I'm also glad to see the girl wasn't penalized for doing so.

However, I do think the girl's parents need a sit down come to Jesus talk about letting a kid hunt unsupervised when they're obviously not up to speed on identifying game animals and not being totally sure of their target before shooting a gun.
 
I am glad that they reported the kill to the game warden. Its the right thing to do. I'm also glad to see the girl wasn't penalized for doing so.

However, I do think the girl's parents need a sit down come to Jesus talk about letting a kid hunt unsupervised when they're obviously not up to speed on identifying game animals and not being totally sure of their target before shooting a gun.
This is the right course of action, IMO.
 
BB....dude, you are full of rage here lately.

It’s a 14 year old kid. Hope that she learns from the mistake and moves on. Most grown hunters I know shoot anything that moves and generally suck at hunting. Hence why we don’t have many deer older than 3 in NC.

Let me get this straight, because she's 14 means she isn't responsible for her "mistake"?? I'm gonna have to call BS on that one. She wasn't properly supervised and obviously skipped species identification day. At a minimum she needs to be charged (monetarily) for killing the Elk and have her hunting privileges revoked for a year or two until she matures and stops shooting at anything that's brown and has antlers...... Whether or not the Warden was called doesn't give her a pass for bad judgement. How about she shoots and kills your son, she still get a pass because she's 14?? I doubt it...
Instances like this are exactly what has given hunting the bad name it enjoys in today's world.
 
Let me get this straight, because she's 14 means she isn't responsible for her "mistake"?? I'm gonna have to call BS on that one. She wasn't properly supervised and obviously skipped species identification day. At a minimum she needs to be charged (monetarily) for killing the Elk and have her hunting privileges revoked for a year or two until she matures and stops shooting at anything that's brown and has antlers...... Whether or not the Warden was called doesn't give her a pass for bad judgement. How about she shoots and kills your son, she still get a pass because she's 14?? I doubt it...
Instances like this are exactly what has given hunting the bad name it enjoys in today's world.
I disagree. I think what gives hunting a bad name today is the knuckledraggers that PASS hunter’s safety ed but have no regard for the rest of the public. Like shooting anything that’s brown (like this girl did) and trespassing on other’s property to dump their deer carcasses (as has happened to me 3 times since the start of the 2016 deer season). The list goes on and on.

I know a bunch of good hunters that could mentor this young lady and develop her into a sportsman worthy of the name. I also know some that could turn her into a wreckless dipshitted mirror image of themselves.

And...oh freaking please. Don’t act like this chick shooting a small elk through some brush mistaking it for a buck is the same as her shooting a person.

The girl needs guidance. I take issue with the parents. Kids don’t develop skill and discern on their own.
 
PETA people are screaming. ;)

Honest mistake. Handled properly. Learning experience.
It's not not like she shot a cow. I was afraid she had shot a person.
 
It's telling where we are in society when something like this makes headline news. I saw where some are posting on social media that she needs to be locked up SMH. Her dad should have known the attention this would bring to his daughter and just kept his piehole shut. But since it's out in the open now, I'd stuff that sucker and put it in the living room - heck, even put it on all their Christmas cards they send out this year with the family posing with it LOL. At this point, I'm waiting for some nutjob to come out and say this elk had a name (remember harambe?). If this is the worse the child ever does, then I'd say mom and dad did a pretty good job.
 
Gonna have to side with @Bailey Boat on this one...at least to some degree. Forget the fact she was hunting. Basic firearm safety.

Cooper advocated four basic rules of gun safety:
  • All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
  • Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. ...
  • Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. ...
  • Identify your target, and what is behind it.
And yes, I'd agree shooting an elk instead of a deer isn't the same as shooting a guy crawling on all fours like a previous story we discussed.
 
Gonna have to side with @Bailey Boat on this one...at least to some degree. Forget the fact she was hunting. Basic firearm safety.

Cooper advocated four basic rules of gun safety:
  • All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
  • Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. ...
  • Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. ...
  • Identify your target, and what is behind it.
And yes, I'd agree shooting an elk instead of a deer isn't the same as shooting a guy crawling on all fours like a previous story we discussed.

This is a small elk... obscured by some brush it might appear to be a deer? There is certainly the letter of the law... then there is such a thing as offering grace in an uncertain situation. I'm not advocating either way, but for those who have never been close to the line, I salute you. You are better than 99% of us.

B9320141942Z.1_20151216181335_000_GI4CSR3SL.1-0.jpg
 
Would you bother teaching your kid to ID an elk vs a deer if A- there are not supposed to be any elk in your area, B- there is no elk season, C-you have no reason to expect them to encounter an elk. My daughter hunts on her own. I have not taught her the difference between a whitetail and a mule deer because I don't expect her to get a shot on a mule deer in Mountain View, NC. Although she has seen enough elk that I'm sure she knows the difference.

If there is no season, and no protected status for elk she really did nothing illegal. It's a non game animal. She saw an animal that was similar to what she was expecting to be hunting. Apparently she saw it well enough to kill it with one shot too. If you are out deer hunting in an area that is only supposed to have deer, exactly what other animals have antlers?

I can't get terribly wound up about it. If the elk have become free range the wildlife dept needs to be getting the word out there. But they seem to be as surprised as the girl probably was.

FYI, the GSMNP herd has led to elk ending up in SC an GA. They like to roam and the young males have a tendency to just take a long walk.
 
Would you bother teaching your kid to ID an elk vs a deer if A- there are not supposed to be any elk in your area, B- there is no elk season, C-you have no reason to expect them to encounter an elk. My daughter hunts on her own. I have not taught her the difference between a whitetail and a mule deer because I don't expect her to get a shot on a mule deer in Mountain View, NC. Although she has seen enough elk that I'm sure she knows the difference.

If there is no season, and no protected status for elk she really did nothing illegal. It's a non game animal. She saw an animal that was similar to what she was expecting to be hunting. Apparently she saw it well enough to kill it with one shot too. If you are out deer hunting in an area that is only supposed to have deer, exactly what other animals have antlers?

I can't get terribly wound up about it. If the elk have become free range the wildlife dept needs to be getting the word out there. But they seem to be as surprised as the girl probably was.

FYI, the GSMNP herd has led to elk ending up in SC an GA. They like to roam and the young males have a tendency to just take a long walk.

Agree, if only the target species lives in the area then a non target species deer shows up like a mulie or fallow buck walks by you might consider it non typical.

CD
 
I happen to agree with @chiefjason and @Ikarus1 and think the crown can go stuff their "charges' up their backside.

Still, ethical hunting is absolutely important, if not critical, but I too think it's absurd to need the Crowns permission to hunt on my land and to report kills to the crown. All the more reason to learn to process your kills yourself.
 
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Gonna have to side with @Bailey Boat on this one...at least to some degree. Forget the fact she was hunting. Basic firearm safety.

Cooper advocated four basic rules of gun safety:
  • All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
  • Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. ...
  • Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. ...
  • Identify your target, and what is behind it.
And yes, I'd agree shooting an elk instead of a deer isn't the same as shooting a guy crawling on all fours like a previous story we discussed.
I’m with Waylon and B.B. on this one. Having seen a lot of elk, a young bull is no where in the realm of size that a mature whitetail would be. If she was sure enough of her target to put it down in one shot, then she should have known something was not right. Two weeks ago I had to pass up a shot on a nice legal bull because there was a cow positioned awkwardly below and behind him. I know I could have killed him dead at 80 yards but I wasn’t going to take a chance on injuring her. I was raised that if it’s not 100% certainty on the shot, you pass and wait for another opportunity.
 
I’m with Waylon and B.B. on this one. Having seen a lot of elk, a young bull is no where in the realm of size that a mature whitetail would be. If she was sure enough of her target to put it down in one shot, then she should have known something was not right. Two weeks ago I had to pass up a shot on a nice legal bull because there was a cow positioned awkwardly below and behind him. I know I could have killed him dead at 80 yards but I wasn’t going to take a chance on injuring her. I was raised that if it’s not 100% certainty on the shot, you pass and wait for another opportunity.

But also consider the possibility of seeing that elk at 100y through some light brush and thinking that it’s a whitetail at 70. Same shot placement.

Also, I’d like to know how many of us high and mighty ethical hunters have taken a damn near pitch black dark shot on a deer b/c “that’s when the deer are moving”. I hear it referenced all the time. Edge of dark.

How many of you that have taken that shot were 100% certain of what you shooting at? How many of you took that edge of dark shot on a big six pointer walking by himself and climbed down only to find an 80lbs spike laying there. With low light or obscured vision and an animal walking by themselves with no other animal to reference its size, I can absolutely understand how it could happen.

Think about this and then think about where you were as a young hunter.

Or screw it, let’s just send the Kingsman after this 14 year old girl and ensure that we lose another hunter for life. Sheesh.

FYI, I’m not calling you out on this specifically @Traceround. Part of my post is in response to part of your post.
 
99% of deer hunters in North Carolina would never be able to tell the difference between a whitetail and mule deer. They would blast it and quarter it and be done. Expect a 14 year old to know a non native species that looks like a deer, no way. Pretty classy the family reported it but almost everyone else that hunts would not.
 
her. I was raised that if it’s not 100% certainty on the shot, you pass and wait for another opportunity.
The operative words here being "you were raised to". That it is how it should be and is vastly different than being subject to the crown's "justice". The latter part, the crown that is, I have no use for. For Sithis' sake, what the hell good would a "fine" paid to the state, or worse do? Nothing. Not a damned thing. So that's why I say take their whatever, charges, tickets, fines, and go shove em.
 
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Now....I believe when the herd is "being managed" by the state "for our own good" then all the reporting and census taking is somewhat beneficial. I know that it's only a portion of deer being reported that are harvested, kind of like those ubiquitous "non registered" firearms floating out there. I understand that NC has a vested interest in the whitetail deer not being exterminated like it almost was in the 1880s-1920s.

That being said, I disagree with the fact that the "people" own the resource when it primarily resides on and feeds on my resources.

Non of that applies to a non-native anomaly like this lost bull elk. And furthermore, none of it applies to a MINOR who happened to be hunting in the king's forest.
 
How well can you tell the difference between a coyote and a eastern red wolf? We have enough hunters here in NC to have trouble.

CD
 
How well can you tell the difference between a coyote and a eastern red wolf? We have enough hunters here in NC to have trouble.

CD

That's simple. There's no such thing as the 'Eastern Red Wolf'. It's a made up species by US Fish and Wildlife and the RWC. They're all coyote-wolf hybrids. And they're all dying if they are in my traps or crosshairs.
 
They're all coyote-wolf hybrids. And they're all dying if they are in my traps or crosshairs.
Wild Fidos are not welcome on my land and about the only thing they will do is prey upon any livestock, pets, or even people. The motto for dealing with them is shoot, shovel, and shut up.
 
Wild Fidos are not welcome on my land and about the only thing they will do is prey upon any livestock, pets, or even people. The motto for dealing with them is shoot, shovel, and shut up.

They're like 101 dalmations. If you kill enough of them, they make a might fine fur coat :D
 
I shot a unicorn once. Thought it was a spike. I used its horn to make nefarious love potions until I accidentally spilled some on the peer in Monterrey.

I was chased for 5 miles by 3 very horny bull walruses. I buried the rest of my horn shavings on sacred ground after that fiasco.
 
I was chased for 5 miles by 3 very horny bull walruses. I buried the rest of my horn shavings on sacred ground after that fiasco.
What a waste. Do you have any idea how rich you could have been? Remind me one of these days to tell (in Tortuga) the story of the old lady that came up with this powder....
 
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