Drive-by?

sheepfarmer · Nov 17, 2017

Yesterday was the second day of firearm deer season in my part of Michigan, and when I went out to feed found one of my lambs on the ground in the run in shed where it had died with a small hole in its muzzle and a pool of blood. Two neighbors heard a really loud gunshot around dawn, their houses, mine, and the sheep are all well within the 450 ft that you are not supposed to shoot a gun. My neighbor (retired vet pathologist) and I did a " kitchen table" autopsy (in the barn) but couldn't find a bullet, DNR guy called in a favor and someone is going to run the sheep through a fluoroscope.

I am wondering about a shotgun? Muzzle loader? Not sure how big a piece of shot might be.

Other than a strip of trees next to tne fence there is no cover, the field next door has been harvested down to bare ground. None of us allow hunting except to another neighbor during bow season, way in the back in the woods.

Couldn't find any other thing that sheep could have gotten into, this was about 90lb lamb.

85Hokie · Nov 17, 2017

Sheep,

sorry to hear about your loss, I hope you can determine who/what/why soon. I am sure you have lots of signs or tree markings up on the trees saying "no hunting" - sad that someone would shoot a sheep - thinking it was a deer......then again, I have sadly seen a deer hunter shoot a goat and have his picture in the paper....

Did your neighbor "find" a path of a bullet? or "could" this have been done via something else and the shot heard just a coincident?

Creature Meadow · Nov 17, 2017

I do a lot of hunting and rarely do I not get a pass through shot even with my bow. I think chances of finding bullet unless it was a very small caliber like a 22 will be difficult.

If possible go out to your road and look for where a vehicle may have pulled off the road. If you find tire tracks then look for a shell casing.

Some land adjacent to mine where I hunted had big signs at all gates entering the property that said smile you are on camera. Thought it was great no idea if cameras were present but it made you think.

sheepfarmer · Nov 17, 2017

About zero chance of finding out who, if there was a who. Yes it could have been a coincidence, which is why we were curious enough to take it in. I was going to take it over to MSU for disposal anyway and DNR has wildlife lab in same building. Iam out of pocket for value of meat regardless, and too little to turn in for farm insurance, so no point in making a big deal out of it. But wondering.

We could follow a tract a couple of inches, but then lost it. If a rifle bullet seems like we should have seen shattered bone. If a stray pellet from a shotgun, not sure what to expect.

No not posted, up by house essentially a residential neighborhood. I used to post everything but it didn't do any good. Folks hunted out back regardless, coming in from other directions.

Daren Todd · Nov 17, 2017

Sheepfarmer, sorry about your lamb. Sounds like some young punk riding around and decided to take a pop shot at your lamb.

The state I grew up in was an open land use state. If the land wasn't posted you could hunt there. And didn't need the owners permission to do so. I always avoided areas where live stock and animals were penned/ pastured/ ect...... And would get livid and cuss someone if they decided to hunt our horse pasture.

To answer your question about guns. Muzzle loader and shotgun make a mess. The lead are pretty good size. Good distance for one is around 100 yards .

If it was a good distance, my thought would be rifle. The leads are smaller and depending on the rifle, can travel quite a distance. Depending on what ammo was used, the lead could break up, or bounce around inside.

skeets · Nov 17, 2017

Now that plain sucks, every year around here we hear of night hunters getting a goat or sheep, thinking it was a deer,, sometimes a flash light doesnt to much more than light up the eyes. ILLEGAL hell yes, and I would be mad as the devil too. The chances of ever finding the joker is next to 0 unless someone saw the truck/car and got a plate number. Ask around and see if anyone else has lost any live stock this way. There was some city kids that would come down this way on the week ends and drive the back roads shooting at stuff. They finally got caught because somebody saw them shoot at a horse by a barn.
I do hope they catch who ever did this,if in fact it was done at night.

sdk1968 · Nov 17, 2017

if there is NO exit wound....

then its still in there or it wasnt a bullet. no matter whether it was rifle, pistol, shotty or muzzle loader...

you should either have a exit hole or a bullet of some sort.

the exit hole should be the bigger uglier hole with the blood trail vs the entrance wound.

If there is no bullet maybe it was "poked" instead. the sound could have been a backfire of a vehicle instead of a weapon.

we had a slate of random "cow killings" here about a month ago.. turned out to be a couple of douchebags who were mimicking what they read on the internet.

sheepfarmer · Nov 18, 2017

Creature Meadow, that was a good idea about looking along the road for foot prints etc, the bad news is just before I found the lamb the county grader came through, and there is no place to pull over. However the across the street neighbor who was sure it was a rifle he heard, walks his dogs along the road and is going to look for casings etc. He is probably more concerned about someone using a gun from the road or a car than I am, justifiably, because his house is about 30 feet from the road. In any case if a rifle, illegal hunting because we are in a shotgun region, but with some exceptions.

Sdk you are quite right, but finding an entry or exit wound in a wooly sheep is harder than it might seem. Found only one but? The pasture they were in is only an acre and we had no luck finding something he could have run into. But not ruling it out. Maybe his fellow ram lambs are carrying knives?

Haven't heard back from DNR if they found anything. I am surprised they were interested, so maybe my sheep is not the only one as skeets mentioned.

sdk1968 · Nov 18, 2017

sheepfarmer said:
Creature Meadow, that was a good idea about looking along the road for foot prints etc, the bad news is just before I found the lamb the county grader came through, and there is no place to pull over. However the across the street neighbor who was sure it was a rifle he heard, walks his dogs along the road and is going to look for casings etc. He is probably more concerned about someone using a gun from the road or a car than I am, justifiably, because his house is about 30 feet from the road. In any case if a rifle, illegal hunting because we are in a shotgun region, but with some exceptions.

Sdk you are quite right, but finding an entry or exit wound in a wooly sheep is harder than it might seem. Found only one but? The pasture they were in is only an acre and we had no luck finding something he could have run into. But not ruling it out. Maybe his fellow ram lambs are carrying knives?

Haven't heard back from DNR if they found anything. I am surprised they were interested, so maybe my sheep is not the only one as skeets mentioned.

Sheepy:

im a long time hunter & gun enthusiast... so it frosts my ass when people do dumb things like shooting stuff they dont intend to eat..

also my 17 yr old daughter interns with the County Coroner.... so she has a lot of "wound tracking" experience. :-0 they use a dowl rod & insert it into the wound track to get the correct angle of where to look for whichever hole they are missing...

if it went in & hit something & changed directions it would just about have to be a small caliber firearm or a piece of round shot.

high powered rounds just dont stop in lightweight creatures.

good luck & sorry for the wasted animal.

sheepfarmer · Nov 24, 2017

Skeets, you were closer to the truth than any of us would like. Charlotte is nearby. Sigh.

http://www.wilx.com/content/news/They-mean-everything-to-us-459818053.html

armylifer · Nov 25, 2017

sheepfarmer said:
Skeets, you were closer to the truth than any of us would like. Charlotte is nearby. Sigh.

http://www.wilx.com/content/news/They-mean-everything-to-us-459818053.html

Sheepfarmer, I have been following this thread but I did not have anything to say that would have been helpful,until now. After reading the story that you linked to, it seems apparent,and likely, that someone maliciously killed all of these animals. I would think that those horses were killed by the same ones that killed your lamb, especially since you said that you live near Charlotte.

My suggestion is that you take out an ad in the local newspaper asking people to be especially watchful and report suspicious persons to the police. Most people that read such ads will react and start being more watchful. I am sorry about your loss and I hope they catch the punks that killed these animals.

bearbait · Nov 25, 2017

Sorry to see you going through this. If it was shot it was done by someone with no respect for life or other people not a true sportsman. Every year I have trouble here, people ripping my mail box out of the ground and throwing it in the woods because they used to hunt this property before I moved back. In the spring I tried putting a chain across my road until the frost comes out but they just beat the lock off and tear up my road. This is not done by true sportsman, it's done by gutless cowards who have no respect for other people. Trouble is even when you catch them there is not much you can do, it seems as though the law doesn't want to get involved at least around here. I sure hope you get to the bottom of this mystery and I hope it wasn't done by so called humans, you will sleep much better.

NBKubota · Nov 25, 2017

^ bearbait, have you set up some trail cams to see who is doing it?

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bearbait · Nov 25, 2017

NBKubota said:
^ bearbait, have you set up some trail cams to see who is doing it?

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

Actually I set up 2. One was watching the other and I caught him on camera stealing one of the cameras. Natural resources told me to leave him alone that he was a really bad dude. I did have a chat with him, told him to stay out of my road which he didn't take very well. I never did buckle to intimidation but I have my family to consider but on the bright side judging by the amount he smokes and the coughing and gaging he won't be bothering me much longer. The mail box will not go back in as I managed to get a CMB down the road.

NBKubota · Nov 25, 2017

Good advice, sometimes things just aren't worth the aggravating pain in the butt factor.

On a side note, I can come and give you back up if you ever need it, I'm only a couple of hours away, give or take [emoji16]

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bearbait · Nov 25, 2017

NBKubota said:
Good advice, sometimes things just aren't worth the aggravating pain in the butt factor.

On a side note, I can come and give you back up if you ever need it, I'm only a couple of hours away, give or take [emoji16]

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

Lol, thanks NBKubota, good to have family.

Dalroo · Nov 29, 2017

Near my home a few years ago there were two occasions, same pasture, but different times, when some idiot killed two donkeys with bow shots. I never heard if anyone was caught, but the callousness of this is mind-boggling. There is no point and indicates a sickness in the brain and lack of any conscience.

Another landowner was asking around one day if anyone had heard a gunshot recently. Some one had shot one of his cows from the county road. No reason - someone just decided to kill something. Very sick.

Sorry to OP that you are dealing with this. Even if it is only once, the thought is stressful I'm sure.

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Drive-by?

sheepfarmer

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