Actually there's some interesting responses to this. More than a few got my feeling on this which was that grey areas were crossed, conflict brought to the edge of lethal arms escalation, good sense prevailed in terms of a deer not being worth taking it further. I wouldn't have slept good at night shooting two guys over a deer.
In my defense I waited after the first shot for a second to see if the guy would follow up with a good shot, when it missed too I knew I had about one second to get that shell shocked deer before it was going into deer overdrive.
Let's say of those two guys hunting together one shoots twice and misses and his partner says to heck with this and drops it. I know for a fact there isn't going to be a dispute about who hit it or who's deer it is (the person who hit it is going to claim it), that's the standard common sense ethics of the matter.
This came down to me taking it to the ragged edge of someone blowing it and I stepped in as everyone was going to lose it and dropped it.
I was fully cognizant of that first shot and the second as well, had either shot even touched that deer there is no way I'd have shot it too. Had it been wounded and needing to be finished off I wouldn't shoot it unless told to by the original shooter, people get real sensitive about meat destroying second shots, I would not consider it my place to shoot an already shot deer.
A deer will stand there frozen from a missed shot or even two, but when their sense of shock wears off they are moving into top gear to a degree that not many people are going to put a bullet to them.
I don't think I made a horrible decision shooting when I did, and nine out of ten hunters would have been 100% aware that my bullet dropped the deer, and more than likely humbled by missing from 75 yards when I hit it from over 250. Had I had two nice guys on the other end of this I'd have offered to clean and split it with them because I wouldn't have wanted to deal with it myself if I had a chance to have help and camaraderie for the job. My tag, they get half the deer that wasn't their hit, most would have left happy. This was a big deer and I didn't have freezer space for that much anyway, I'd have been giving half of it away regardless.
No, I encountered white trash locals used to throwing their weight around in numbers. I looked like a wealthy out of towner with fancy clothes and gear and they didn't know I was a local Georgetown bad boy gone good. I was using this here as one of those examples of something that can have life altering consequences in the split second it takes for someone to make a bad move when the shoe is not on the right foot.
To me what goes through someone's head as they are in the middle of a potentially life threatening altercation is fascinating stuff. Every person has a lot of scenarios running through their head, most critical is the equation of what side of the law am I on here? A cop facing a gun wielding threat knows he has only to use set criteria for pulling a trigger and he's good. The bad guy has to do the math himself as to can he get away with it, is it defense as a criteria or will he have to get away clean and without evidence.
What was going through my head was actually sort of humorous in a dark kinda way, and there's a lot of guys riding the straight and narrow that wouldn't see the humor at all.
Allright, I'll let it roll even though it will be with mixed reviews. As the one guy was edging to one side and looking itchy to grab his pistol I was running scenarios. The one I saw that was a split second away from happening was that I was about to have to shoot both guys because one was about to make a grab for a gun. No doubts in my head it was going to be a fact. I was running what was going to have to happen as far as how I handled it and I started laughing and said they could have the deer. They were both a little annoyed that there seemed to be some joke they weren't a part of (but yes they were). Why was that funny and why I arrived at giving them the deer?
Simple, because if I shot their ignorant redneck butts I was going to have to hightail it back across the clearing to my vehicle and leave the deer anyway. I'm sorry, I just wouldn't have been stupid enough to gut and haul that deer after shooting two guys. In thinking the whole process of what I'd have to do I was already aware of the fact that I had picked up my ejected shell because I reload, I was clean. But fact of the matter was there was no point in escalating this to shooting when I couldn't have the deer anyway.
Come on, I'm being facetious, a deer isn't worth anyone's life. But that dark little scenario was running in my head along with the other sensibilities. I wouldn't have shot them even if I could have had the deer.
, I definitely would have had they done something stupid. Part of the reason that guy said I could have half the deer was that perhaps they were catching on that they could be in trouble.
All the "I'd have got caught" comments aren't necessary, this was in a area that people get shot or go missing all the time, certain incidents such as this never do get solved, they are just too random.
That's why I don't hunt on public land anymore, I've known several people who got shot intentionally because the guys who did it knew they could get away with it.
My freezer is FULL of deer meat, & lucky there is'nt hogs on the property, But there is turkey,deer,bobcats, & other varmits ; )PS I aint fighting over no dang deer,Lifes to short 
Never in my years have I heard of such a deal. But if I ever hunt Arkansas I will remember to shoot the deer down til I'm out of ammo, or until it falls apart, or whatever to keep it from running to the nerxt group of shooters, Dove hunting maybe!!! Deer hunting never!!!! that's the way we hooligans role!!!