Hunting Ethics: Would You Shoot Across Property Lines if Nobody was Around?

Hunters live by property lines all year long, but what if nobody was around? 

They say the sign of true character is how you act when nobody is watching. Well, does the same hold true for deer hunting? That's a big question when a 12-point buck is walking just 10 feet on the wrong side of the fence. It sure would be easy to take the shot. If you just quickly dragged it over to your side of the fence, nobody would know. But what if you got caught? What if you don't?

On the properties we hunt, we purposefully keep our stands far enough away from property lines so neighbors can't say we are hunting their side of the fence. We also go out of our way to become friends with our neighbors so eventually this all becomes a gray area we just work out together. However, what if those neighbors weren't around? How blurred do those property lines get?

Just last year, I heard of a case where an out-of-state hunter shot a large buck on a somebody else's side of the fence in our county. It's our state law that wherever the deer falls, it belongs to the property owner. In most cases, it's just common knowledge to get permission from the property owner to go claim your deer. However, in this case, no permission was given. As a matter of fact, this landowner was so upset by it, he claimed the deer on his landowner tag and refused to let the hunter enter his property.

So what do you think? How serious are you about legal and ethical property lines?

NEXT: ABSOLUTE TROPHY BUCK KILLED ON THE HIGHWAY IN OKLAHOMA