Watch: Utah Elk Hunter Claims Sheriff’s Deputy Stole His Bull

A Utah elk hunter says he has dropped his complaint against a Millard County sheriff’s deputy who he accused of shooting a bull from under him during a hunt Saturday. The hunter, Mayson Smith, made his complaint public in a Facebook post Saturday night. But on Sunday, another hunter shared a YouTube video showing part of the hunt in question that appeared to undermine some of Smith’s claims.

Smith has since deleted his accusatory Facebook post. He also said Outdoor living Monday that he and Millard County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Blad have resolved their issues and “they’ve decided to just move on.” The Millard County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but it acknowledged the complaint on Sunday and said the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources would conduct an independent investigation into the matter. A DWR spokesperson confirmed to OL that an investigation is ongoing.

“I shot this bull today with [an] over-the-counter archery tag. I put it to bed after shooting and gave it time to pass,” Smith wrote in his first Facebook post on Aug. 17, according to Gephardt Daily. Smith further claimed that he encountered another hunter while waiting for the elk he had shot to die, and that by the time he went to find the 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 him out of his misery and now he’s my bull.”

These claims quickly spread online. And while many social media users were initially quick to side with Smith, some changed their minds after a third party shared their perspective on the hunt in the YouTube video: “What Really Happened on 8/17?”

“It’s pretty stupid to see this stuff go viral without all the information,” the video’s creator and narrator, whose identity has not been disclosed, says in the video. “That’s the bad 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 the bull running a considerable distance with Smith’s arrow sticking out of his leg, then lying down in a groove where the videographer put a shaft on the bull and shot him with another arrow. The narrator says this was about five hours after Smith’s first shot.

“As I get closer, I see this six-pointer is right below me. We know he was only hit in the leg, and I can see his antler tips,” the narrator explains. “So I’m thinking, Well, I’ll just shoot him and we’ll figure it out.”

The video then explains, but does not show, how the bull continued to run down the mountain, where Millard County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Blad shot and killed the elk two more times. After some discussion, the narrator explains, Blad decided to tag the bull himself.

“Mike and I sat there and talked about it for 10 minutes and I decided that Mike had to get the bull… he would have given it to me if I wanted it, [but] that’s what we decided,” the narrator says. “We looked at where Mayson [Smith] had hit this bull and immediately decided [it] was not a lethal shot. We decided there is no reason why the only person who did not get a lethal shot on the bull should be the one tagging him.”

The video also mentions, but does not show, the dispute that arose when Smith showed up to find that the bull he had shot had already been tagged. The narrator in the video says that Blad had legally tagged the bull, and he states (incorrectly) that in Utah, “the one who kills the animal is the one who gets to tag it first.”

There is no mention of such a rule in the law. Utah Big Game Hunting Regulations BookHowever, a DWR spokesperson also confirmed that there is no state law governing this, and that “it is generally an ethical issue.”

Read more: Former Utah wildlife commissioner under investigation for luring mule deer onto outfitted ranch

This leads to a broader discussion, because as with many hunting scenarios, there are laws and ethics involved. And while the video was clearly made with the intention of exonerating Blad, it also raises a host of ethical questions about how each hunter went about 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 had seen (and filmed) shot by another hunter. These critics have asked why he didn’t include footage of Blad in the video or show the multiple arrow wounds on the harvested bull.

Meanwhile, at least one commenter who claims to have had a similar tagging dispute is remaining in limbo until he gets all the answers.

“I had a similar experience… I was glad the bear didn’t suffer and the other guy kept the bear,” @nickl2465 wrote in the video’s comments section. “The only thing I’m questioning here is was the other guy willing to go down and finish the bull off? It sounds like in his post he was planning on trying to save him. I’m split on this.”