The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has completed its investigation into an elk hunter’s claims that a Millard County Sheriff’s deputy stole a bull out from under him during an Aug. 17 hunt. Investigators determined that the deputy, Mike Blad, did not commit any crimes and he harvested the bull legally, according to DWR public information officer Faith Heaton Jolley.
Jolley says a conservation officer looked at video evidence of the hunt, which took place in Beaver County and involved three different bowhunters who all shot the same bull. The video showed that the accusing hunter, Mayson Smith, shot the elk first, “but it was not a lethal shot,” Jolley explains. After another hunter put a second arrow in the bull, Blad (the third hunter) was able to shoot the elk three more times and kill it. He then tagged the bull and claimed it for himself.
“The officer concluded that the third hunter had not committed any crimes in shooting and harvesting the elk,” Jolley says.
Aug. 19. 2024 — A Utah elk hunter says he has dropped his complaint against a Millard County Sheriff’s deputy who he had accused of shooting a bull out from under him during a hunt Saturday. The hunter, Mayson Smith, had made his complaint public in a Facebook post on Saturday evening. On Sunday, however, another hunter shared a YouTube video that showed part of the hunt in question and seemed to undercut some of Smith’s claims.
Smith has since removed his accusatory Facebook post. He also told Outdoor Life on Monday that he and Millard County Sheriff’s deputy Mike Blad have both resolved their issues and that “they decided to just move on.” The Millard County Sheriff’s Office did not respond immediately to a request for comment, but it acknowledged the complaint on Sunday and said the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources would be leading an independent investigation into the matter. A DWR spokesperson confirmed with OL that an investigation is still underway.
“I shot this bull today with [an] over the counter archery tag. I bedded it down after I shot and was giving it time to pass,” Smith wrote in his initial Facebook post on Aug. 17, according to Gephardt Daily. Smith went on to claim that he bumped into another hunter while waiting for the elk he shot to die, and that by the time he went to find that elk, it had already been killed, tagged, and claimed by the other hunting party. Smith said that Blad, one of the hunters in the party, told him, “I put it out of its misery and now it’s my bull.”
These claims spread quickly online. And while many social media users were quick to side with Smith initially, some changed their tune after a third party shared their view of the hunt in the YouTube video: “What really happened on 8/17.”
“Pretty stupid to see this stuff go viral without all the information,” the video’s creator and narrator, whose identity is unknown, says in the video. “That’s the lousy thing about social media. One side always gets to tell the story and it’s not always the truth.”
The video shows Smith shooting the bull in the front leg. It shows how the bull ran a good distance with Smith’s arrow protruding from its leg and then bedded down in a draw, where the video’s creator put a stalk on the bull and shot it with another arrow. The narrator says this was roughly five hours after Smith’s initial shot.
“As I’m moving in, I realize this six-point is bedded right below me. We know he’s only hit in the leg, and I can see his antler tips,” the narrator explains. “So, I’m like, well, I’ll just shoot him and we’ll figure it out.”
The video then explains, but does not show, how the bull ran further down the draw where Millard County Sheriff’s deputy Mike Blad shot the elk twice more and killed it. After some discussion, the narrator explains, Blad had decided to tag the bull himself.
“Me and Mike sat there and talked about it for 10 minutes and I decided that Mike should take the bull … he would’ve given it to me if I would have wanted it, [but] that’s what we decided,” the narrator says. “We looked at where Mayson [Smith] had hit this bull and immediately determined [it] wasn’t a fatal shot. We decided that there’s no reason the only person who didn’t put a fatal shot on the bull should be the one that tags him.”
The video also mentions, but doesn’t show, the dispute that took place when Smith showed up to find the bull he’d shot had already been tagged. The narrator says in the video that Blad tagged the bull legally, and he states (incorrectly) that in Utah, “whoever kills the animal is the one who has first choice to tag it.”
There is no mention of such a rule in the Utah big-game hunting regulations book, however. A DWR spokesperson also confirmed that there is no state law around this, and that “it’s overall an ethical issue.”
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This brings up a larger discussion because, as with many hunting scenarios, there are laws and then there are ethics. And while the video was clearly made with the intention of exonerating Blad, it also brings up a host of ethical questions about how each hunter handled his decision making. Some commenters have thanked the video’s creator for sharing the “real story,” while others have called him a “scavenger” and questioned why he would go after a bull that he watched (and filmed) another hunter shoot. These critics have asked why he didn’t include in the video any footage with Blad or show the different arrow wounds on the harvested bull.
Meanwhile, at least one commenter who claims to have experienced a similar tagging dispute is staying on the fence until they have all the answers.
“Very similar thing happened to me … I was happy the bear didn’t suffer and the other guy kept the bear,” @nickl2465 writes in the video’s comment section. “Only thing I’m in question about here, was the other guy willing to go down and finish the bull off? It does sound like in his post he was intending to attempt recovery. I’m torn here.”
This story, originally published on Aug. 19, 2024 at 6:27 p.m. EST, was updated on Aug. 21, 2024 to include an updated statement from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources regarding the results of its investigation.