A-Hole Hunter - Gut shot elk in town

AZmark

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This happened in my home town on Monday morning. Wife and I were taking my mom to a Dr appt and we saw 3 trucks stopped on the highway by my brothers (who was not at home at the time) pasture, I thought they may have stopped for a road kill but we didnt see anything going on off the road so we kept on going. This elk was shot right in town, on private property that was posted. When we got home one of my other brothers told me what had happened. The picture was taken from my brothers driveway.

I'm a hunter myself and used to archery hunt also but gave it up after back surgery, so stick with rifle and muzzleloader now. I have elk crossing my property almost every night and morning but I have never shot one there and I have never allowed anyone else including my sons to hunt here as we can always find plenty of elk less that 1 mile down the road on National Forest land. It's hard to believe that there are such a-holes out there.

Just so happens that there was a professional photographer taking pictures and witnessed the whole thing.

We're trying to find out this a-holes name but haven't had any luck as of yet. We will find out as soon as the case is recorded and becomes public information.

 
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I'll just ask, is this illegal?


Clearly looks like the hunter made a poor shot, but seems to me like more information needs to be present before I pass judgement.


Of course, I come from.an area where they encourage "urban archery".


I see where they cited, that might be for infractions after the incident.
 

robtattoo

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I'll just ask, is this illegal?


Clearly looks like the hunter made a poor shot, but seems to me like more information needs to be present before I pass judgement.


Of course, I come from.an area where they encourage "urban archery".


I see where they cited, that might be for infractions after the incident.

Imma go ahead & guess that the 'private posted land' thing is probably a serious issue.
 

GSPHUNTER

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I just don't understand crap like that. He deserves every punishment possible as far as the law goes.
 

Chanimal

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CO
Poor shot, poor arrow setup, and poor self awareness. Despite my internal disappointment, no judgement passed on the person who shot the elk (if legal), not something I would personally be proud of.

Imagine shooting an elk where a pro photographer has immediate access to said elk.
 
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Imma go ahead & guess that the 'private posted land' thing is probably a serious issue.

I would agree, and that might be the case.

But the op says he has ground where they are daily, and he doesn't hunt there, or allow others to.

So seems it's legal to hunt there.



Just wondering who got the story and ran with it.


Likely the op is completely right, but if it's a situation where a legal hunter just made a poor shot, while I don't condone taking chances like that, I'll admit to holding a different opinion than to just skewer his ass.
 

def90

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Who knows.. anyone have a link to an actual local news story? A few people in the original Facebook post have questioned whether or not it really happened. Just happened to be a pro photographer there and the photo has been photoshopped? Rusty Childress the guy that made the facebook post is a photographer so it must have been him that took the pic. He posted it to the local Alpine page, didn't post anything about it on his own page which he has set to semi-public viewing.
 

AZ8

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There’s some things to sort out, unfortunately we don’t have all the details sans the OP report.

Couple things:

In Arizona, it’s illegal to discharge a weapon within 1/4 of an occupied structure. This now includes archery which is a fairly new rule added in 2019 to match up with rifle.

In Arizona, private property MUST be posted. The burden falls on the property owner. Not really an issue with smaller properties, since it’s easy to post. This usually comes into play with large ranches where there are miles of fencing that’s not always properly posted. Orange painted fence posts spaced out every 1/4 mile is the law.

By the OP description, it appears to be a smaller parcel and WAS posted.

Was the bull shot on USFS land and then trotted onto private? Was the shot taken more than 440 yards from an occupied structure? Only the hunter knows. Game and Fish, after concluding their investigation, which may include witnesses, will have those answers. Everything else is speculation.

This same scenario played out several years ago in Pinetop and it involved a well known guide. Didn’t turn out well for both the hunter and guide.
 

Blackcow

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central Az.
In the pinetop instance, the bull was shot legally, on f.s., more than a quarter mile away from any structure. The shot was bad, the bull ran into the houses and bedded down. When g&f showed up, the officer told the hunter( client) to put the bull out of his misery and then cited him for shooting within the 1/4 mile( like, literally in a back yard), and confiscated the bull. The guide was found innocent of all charges, but the charge against the client stuck. Just had to throw that out there. This sounds like a different situation. And as far as I can tell, no golf course was involved, lol.
 
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AZ8

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In the pinetop instance, the bull was shot legally, on f.s., more than a quarter mile away from any structure. The shot was bad, the bull ran into the houses and bedded down. When g&f showed up, the officer told the hunter( client) to put the bull out of his misery and then cited him for shooting within the 1/4 mile( like, literally in a back yard), and confiscated the bull. The guide was found innocent of all charges, but the charge against the client stuck. Just had to throw that out there. This sounds like a different situation. And as far as I can tell, no golf course was involved, lol.
It’s been awhile, but yeah, you’re right, it was more of a private property without permission and a safety violation incident, rather than a wildlife violation.

Either way, the optics were bad with that incident. Seeing that dead bull laying off someone’s porch…lol…ouch! Not good for anyone! At least there weren’t any power lines involved!😜
 

TheGDog

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OK... for my own clarification here the dealio that makes this "wrong" or "illegal"... is because these guys went onto private property w/o permission, correct?

Or are there also local laws which prohibit shooting an arrow when you're a 1/4 mile away from anyone else?

I want to educate myself and understand what are all the "no can do" components of what transpired here.
 

BBob

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OK... for my own clarification here the dealio that makes this "wrong" or "illegal"... is because these guys went onto private property w/o permission, correct?

Or are there also local laws which prohibit shooting an arrow when you're a 1/4 mile away from anyone else?

I want to educate myself and understand what are all the "no can do" components of what transpired here.
Can't answer as to if they shot this one on or off private but a number of years ago AZ added the 1/4 mi limit to apply to archery. This was a response to urban archery getting out of hand and far too many hunter to resident conflicts and shot animals ending up in peoples yards.

Rule 12-4-303 that prohibit discharging a firearm or archery equipment with a ¼ mile of an occupied residence without the resident's permission.
 
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Laramie

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Can't answer as to if they shot this one on or off private but a number of years ago AZ added the 1/4 mi limit to apply to archery. This was response to urban archery getting out of hand and far too many hunter to resident conflicts and shot animals ending up in peoples yards.
Most states do have a distance one has to be from an occupied dwelling. Most states are shorter than 1/4 mile. For instance, Colorado is 400 yards, Nebraska is 100 yards, etc...

The optics of this don't look good but until we get all the details, nobody should pass judgement. Maybe he had permission on the posted property? Anyone who has hunted knows that poor hits can happen for various reasons. It is possible that everything was done legally but the shot was poor.
 

TheGDog

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Ah...ok.. I knew there had to be some other component at work here. Thanks for taking the time to elaborate sir.
 
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