12/5/2006 11:33:00 AM Two Sisters hunters show poor ethics
By David Culpepper
In this day and age with declining youth hunters, we as adults owe it to our sport to teach proper ethics and practices to those youths who are interested in continuing an ageless tradition here in our great state of Oregon. Recent events in my hunting experience have brought to my attention the lack of proper ethics in some sportsmen in our great state.
One of the first rules my father taught me was that if you see a wounded animal you have the responsibility to put the animal down as humanely as possible and as soon as possible. If the hunters who wounded it are still on the trail, it is their animal.
In 2002, I was cow-hunting elk in the Ochocos out of Prineville. The elk were elusive and in five days of hard hunting we had not seen an animal. While eating lunch in camp, a cow elk ran past. I was closest to my firearm and dropped the animal. As we were pulling the animal out of a pile of brush, two other hunters came upon us. It was 3 p.m.; these two men were covered in sweat and said they had wounded the animal at 7 a.m. and had been tracking it all day.
My hunting partner said, "Way to stay on it," and we gave the elk to them without any discussion at all.
In late November 2006 in Ochoco National Forest above Big Summit Prairie, my 15-year-old son Steven and I finally drew the tags we wanted after three years of trying: A Thanksgiving hunt out of Prineville for cow elk. The elk were scattered and in heavy cover. After days of hunting high and low, we decided to start hunting the thickets.
At 75 yards I took a shot at a elk though a dollar sized opening in the brush. I have never had an elk run when hit and was surprised to not find a downed animal. However, there was a large blood trail and bone at the site.
We knew we had an elk.
We followed the animal for about 1/2 mile to determine direction. Calling my brother on the radio, we discussed our options and location. Steven and I wrongly decided to pursue the elk as we determined it was hit hard and would not go far. Man was I wrong.
We spooked the animal out of its bed and chased it across a main road. The elk laid down again about 10 feet off of the main road to be seen by all other hunters.
Two (men) saw the blood and jumped in on the trail about five minutes ahead of my son and myself. These two people were from Sisters, a great little town of great hunters, I would say they were the exception. As Steven and I crossed the main road, we heard two shots; five minutes later we came upon the kill.
These guys had just started to field dress the animal and already had a tag in its ear.
Their opinion was "first person to tag the animal wins." It was a big game to them and not a sport at all. These guys were quite the sportsmen: See a blood trail from the cab of their truck, track for five minutes and kill a mortally wounded animal, tag it and feel great about the experience.
Steven was shocked about everything. I discussed this with these two people and as the discussion began to turn aggressive I took my son and left. I did however talk to my son in front of these two about the ethics in hunting that were being violated in our faces.
If you shoot an animal, hit it and stay on the trail this is your animal. If your shot was simply a wound, be a man about it and give the animal or at least share the animal. Hunting is getting more and more expensive, and a freezer of meat sure offsets these costs. Help teach our young men the proper ethics our fathers taught us.
