legality of keeping a head
 

A friend of mine found a monster rack. It appears to have quite a bit of dry velvet so I am sure it was killed late summer. Whoever shot it never found it cause my buddy found it about 200 yards from his house. Anyway he does not want it and I would like to keep it. What are the legalities of something like this? Would hate to get in trouble for poaching if I didn't do it.

In Ohio the game warden can give you a tag for found racks.

Same as if you were to find one dead on the side of the road.

I wouldn't report it,i learned the hard way,Found a nice big 10pt dead on our lease in OCT and I cut the head off,and thought i'd do the right thing and report it,and the game warden took it from me,so he said he could have it tested.Because the buck had no apparent cause of death,it was a fresh kill,but it had no signs of death. He said he sent it to have it tested,and it came back positive that it died of EHD or commonly refered to blue tounge.And he said i'll never see it again.. I think its a bunch of bull,how hard is it to get it back once its been tested??

The best thing to do is call your local DNR or whatever it's called in your state and find out for sure and get a name from whoever you get the information from.

Not reporting a found head that could jeopardize your future seasons or a fine just doesn't seem worth it to me.

i would report it and keep it legal,
even if it means risking losing it,
dnr have their reasons for their laws,
whether we agree with them or not,

to them have very little ways to distinquish a found head over a poached head.

Warden gave me a tag for it. It was a mainframe 8 that had 147" of horn. He was actually pretty cool about it. I think I was one of few people that has been honest with him.

Either call the DNR or the local officers. Anyone who can issue you a carcass tag that is. Here in Wisconsin you keep what you call in to have tagged most of the time, but there are times when you get denied.

The worst thing to do is to not keep it legal, and get in trouble because you have it.

just make sure its lawful...i dont think any advise on here should be unlawful, any way, shape er form.

Is there any reason you would expect to be searched between your friends house and your house? Are the game wardens keeping an active watch on your front door? Or were you planning on mounting the head to your car hood?

If I found something like that, I wouldn't think twice about totting it into my house and not telling a soul.