What tipped you off to go strolling through the woods at 10PM? Did he pay restitution?
Total luck I caught them.
I arrived to the farm at 9pm from TN, loaded up with my daughter to ride back in the dark to check trail cam cards on a couple plots to identify where a crippled buck I had passed up earlier in the year was frequenting so she could kill him the following morning. When I got to the middle of the farm, there were flashlights all over the woods. No idea who they were, assumed they were methheads and rode back to get armed (I usually am not armed at night on my own farms) then caught them. After a couple tense moments, they identified themselves at the 17yo neighbors son and his friend trailing a deer they had shot. Just not a good situation for anyone to be put into.... and would have been totally avoidable with a simple phone call... neighbor has my cell number after all.
They put me on the blood trail, and it was gut/ venous blood and sparse... good grief, now they've pushed a gut shot deer right after the shot to God knows where. I told them the only chance to recover at this point would be to leave it overnight and bring a dog the following morning, but even then recovery would be slim. Of course, they weren't willing to spend the $$$ for a little 5 ptr, so it went unrecovered and wasted.
During the search that night, I found fresh truck tracks going through my winter crop. That field is wet in the winter and they rutted it up spinning (unintentionally I'm sure). Tracks led right to their vehicle... good grief, I got really pissed at this point. Adult neighbor came over, saw the damage, and apologized for the whole situation. I asked him to get the 17yo to pay for the damage... a token sum to teach him a lesson... just $100. Which he paid.
But again the whole situation would have been different if they had just called first. PLUS we would have actually recovered the deer the following day, as I would not have let them push a gut shot deer that soon after the shot.