Thanks for all the replies! We are taking this to court as we feel it is absurd. Hopefully good will come out of it as well as not having to pay 180 dollars for something we dont feel is right.
i would fight it. I was harrassed by a conservation officer while goose hunting about 10 years ago while in my blind at the todd farm in allegan area. He was trying to get me and my dad out of our blind because we only had one more bird to shoot before we tagged out and was pissed that we were still there, because like he said there are other customers at the todd farm HQ that were waiting to get our blind. Who' working for whom???????
In the process he ruined the last flock coming in for us, took all of the birds, and proceeded to check my gun over for the plug and check my shot shells. He made me get on the ground and account for all my shot shells. When i couldn't account for a few missing shells he got really pissed. And then he tells me me shot shells were illegal for that year, new law for that size ( didn't know the jackass at wal-mart said that they were legal for the year) i should've known better. Well i got a $200 ticket and checks over my dads yukon.
I lost alot of respect for their authority and have to question why they exist.
I think I'd take this one to court, too - for all the reasons that Uncle Matt listed. Having been in court a couple of times, I'd be sure to be very polite and respectful, but simply point out the facts. You were trying to be good conservationists by not immediately pushing deer that might escape if you had. You had every intention of tagging your animals as soon as you found them.
You can never know what's going through a CO's mind, so you can't really judge his motives. But sometimes they get confused, and sometimes they are just plain wrong.
Last year a CO walked up on my wife who was sitting in her pop up ground blind and told here that she needed to get some identification on it. I checked the rules and for the Type 1 (Portable Ground Blind) it clearly says, "No identification is required." The only ground blind that requires ID is the Type 3 (Constructed Ground Blinds).
He probably just got mixed up on the different types in that case, but in your situation, it does appear that he was pushing the interpretation of the law to the limits - and beyond. There was nothing in your behavior that indicated anything but what you have said.
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Thanks, Dad, for taking time with me.
I think I'd take this one to court, too - for all the reasons that Uncle Matt listed. Having been in court a couple of times, I'd be sure to be very polite and respectful, but simply point out the facts. You were trying to be good conservationists by not immediately pushing deer that might escape if you had. You had every intention of tagging your animals as soon as you found them.
You can never know what's going through a CO's mind, so you can't really judge his motives. But sometimes they get confused, and sometimes they are just plain wrong.
Last year a CO walked up on my wife who was sitting in her pop up ground blind and told here that she needed to get some identification on it. I checked the rules and for the Type 1 (Portable Ground Blind) it clearly says, "No identification is required." The only ground blind that requires ID is the Type 3 (Constructed Ground Blinds).
He probably just got mixed up on the different types in that case, but in your situation, it does appear that he was pushing the interpretation of the law to the limits - and beyond. There was nothing in your behavior that indicated anything but what you have said.
You're a lot nicer than me. I expect a DNR officer to know the regulations backwards and forwards -- it is their JOB, after all, if they get confused how can they hold a hunter to them???
The example posted by another member regarding albino deer in MI is another shining example or rampant stupidity in the organization.
My favorite was when they started limiting anterless tags to 3/hunter....and have since kept expanding the seasons to try and take more antlerless deer. Well, remove the stupid reg limiting those willing to shoot does to 3! If someone doesn't want to shoot does having a 12 month season won't do anything to get the population down. I went from shooting 6-7/yr to 3, nobody else in the area was taking up the slack a guarantee it.
Had you tagged your deer the CO would have potentially approached you with a weapon and no tag if this was your last kill tag. I do not see how it would have went any better in that instance. Fight it as it is a BS ticket, you never actually went to find the deer before heading back to camp. How are you to know that they were dead?
Here is an update for the time being. This happend on the west side of the state. In the battle creek area. WE had a preliminary court on the 5th of jan. The dnr officer was not present just the two of us and a witness i brought and the magistrate. He was really harsh with us at first. And did admit to not reading the papers yet bc his computer had crashed, and our court papers said failure to tag. Which could have been anything. After explaining our story to the magistrate he immediately calmed down and told us he actually did this exact same things this fall. He shot a large buck and went back to the house and had dinner and went back out after it an hour later. So needless to say he was a big hunter as well and understood why we did what we did and felt as if we did no wrong. He is personally gonna talk to the officer and if his story is the same he will ask the case to be dropped personally as he feels it ridiculous. so in the meantime were waiting to hear back from them. Brad
Ninja 
